Dear Folks -
In Bill's absence this Sunday we have the privilege to hear Dr. Tim VanDuivendyk. Dr. VanDuivendyk is a system executive for Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy with the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. Also, he serves as chaplain, a Marriage and Family Therapist and author of the recently published book, The Unwanted Gift of Grief: A Ministry Approach.
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Tim will be addressing the unwanted gift of grief. It is important that we understand the embracing of grief as a vehicle that transforms and heals us toward new life. This transforming gift is a healing process given to us by God, even as we cry out "My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" He will touch briefly on how do you help someone who is in the middle of the wilderness of grief whether a colleague in the office or a neighbor. This is a course that VanDuivendyk wishes could be at the heart of the curriculum in every congregation, high school and university settings.
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Read moreDear Folks -
One of the things that people all over the world want is freedom.
We find freedom for ourselves only when and to the degree we grant
freedom to others.
Those two sentences summarize the content of this week's talk in
the Ordinary Life Gathering. In this talk I look at the original
meaning of the line in the Lord's Prayer about "forgive us our debts"
and show how it was expanded to include a host of other meanings
about untangling the cords that we use to bind both ourselves and
others. We have a hard time hearing this line because of two things:
we don't live as near the economic edge as did Jesus first hearers
and we have fallen under the influence of "recent Christianity" which
doesn't practice the deep openness Jesus did.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
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Read moreIn Bill's absence, we had Tom Daugherty present on spiritual leadership.
Reverend Thomas (Tom) W. Daugherty is the Intentional Interim
Director of the Clinical Pastoral Education Center in the Department
of Pastoral Services of the Valley Baptist Health System (VBHS).
Prior to coming to VBHS in September 2006, Tom had retired from the
Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in June 2004
after 35 years of service in the active ministry of that
denomination. Except for a few years service early in his career as a
staff member of several large Methodist Churches, all of his ministry
occurred in appointments beyond the local church in hospital ministry
settings. His last appointment was to The Methodist Hospital System
(TMHS) in Houston, Texas where he served as Vice President for
Spiritual Care and Values Integration.
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