Where's the Good Stuff this week?
Friday 4/17/26 roundup of what I've discovered on Substack
‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.
Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.
Here’s this week’s roundup:
God stuff
‘It’s Like Breathing’, by Jake Owensby. ‘Looking back, she was doing what a disciple of Jesus does. She wasn’t trying to convert me or signal her piety. She was simply offering herself as a friend.’
‘I waited so long for Spring.’ by Anna Tran. But this is God,
His way of working… Slowly slowly, then suddenly. Inch by inch and then 100 miles per hour.’
Church stuff
‘The Risen Christ Walks With Small Churches’ by Dennis Sanders. ‘I hate hearing those stories because it makes me wonder: Am I doing a good job? Why am I a failure? What did I do wrong? If you’re the pastor of a small church, you probably feel the same way.’
‘Our Minds Can’t Sit Still Anymore’ by Griffin Gooch. ‘Churches are one of the last phone-discouraged public spaces where you can just sit with your thoughts—the things stirring around your consciousness, your paranoias, the self-reflection you’ve been putting off. While it’s not necessarily the most captivating marketing point (“Come on in! We’re boring and quiet!”), shared silence and slowness really is uniquely restorative.’
Other stuff
‘A Simple Way to Begin Celebrating Eastertide at Home’ by Ashley Tumlin Wallace. ‘One of the things I have been thinking about this year is how to carry that joy into ordinary life at home.’
‘On Gnomes, Phones + Coming Home’, by Terrell Johnson. ‘So what do you do? Well, we got to talking with the people we were waiting in line with — a line that easily stretched to two or three thousand people spilling out into the parking lot.’
What I wrote this week:
‘The real reason you can’t change the bulletin.’ ‘No one wants to change. And the faithful people left in our pews are the least likely to want to change anything - because the system still works for them. Or at least well enough that they’re still there. This should be respected.’
‘What’s in a name?’ by Loren Richmond Jr. (I obviously did not write this, but it’s from a publication we share called Substack Seminary. )
‘Names are the currency of your flourishing. Because a name doesn’t just describe what you do. It tells people who you are—and who you’re becoming.’
And finally…
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