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Author Archives: awtraughber
“The Soil for Unexpected Good”
About fifty letters into The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter we get a series of letters to Tolkien’s third son, Christopher. The letters move back and forth wonderfully and soberingly between the events of World … Continue reading
Pastors and Lonely People
It is interesting to me that Andrew Root gives his better definition of the office of pastor in a chapter titled “All the Lonely People.” Search the terms pastor and lonely online and you’ll find at least one article a … Continue reading
Missing the Mechanism for Persons?
As he does in some other books, Andrew Root attempts to give some historical context to what being a pastor has looked like throughout history. This is also true for The Relational Pastor. Early in the book, Root traces the … Continue reading
The Personal and the Individual
Last week I started looking at some of the concepts articulated by professor Andrew Root in The Relational Pastor. I’d like to continue to unpack some of his thinking this week, particularly as it relates to the shared life of … Continue reading
Tolkien on Sermons
From the late-April 1994 from JRR Tolkien to his son Christopher concerning sermons: But as for sermons! They are bad, aren’t they! Most of them from any point of view. The answer to the mystery is prob. not simple; but … Continue reading
The War of Winners Begins
Wednesday night brought the two-hour premiere of Survivor‘s fortieth “season.” This time around they’ve brought together twenty winners to battle it out for twice the normal prize. And those first two hours didn’t disappoint. A few interesting things: It’s always … Continue reading
Losing by Winning
While I don’t leap or land in all the same places with Andrew Root, there are a number of things he writes about in The Relational Pastor that confirms some of my own experience and emboldens me with some hope … Continue reading
A Way Back In (When You’re Not Outside)
In yesterday’s post, I pivoted from Yuval Levin’s discussion of institutional renewal to a question about renewal in the church. Levin spends a good bit of time talking about outsiders and insiders and how we need to see ourselves as … Continue reading
Devotion, Discontent, and Dissent
One of the reasons I enjoy reading books like Yuval Levin’s work on institutions is because I believe in them. I was formed by them. And I’ve been wounded by them (as have we all). While I live far from … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Faith, Notes for a World's End
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Context, Contingency, and Commitment
A few days ago, a co-worker forwarded me a copy of a document that I wrote about ten years that served as a kind of “manifesto” for what I thought could and should be accomplished at work on the level … Continue reading
Posted in Notes for a World's End, Scripture, Teaching
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Space Enough, and Time 