Some Thoughts for the New Year....
Estes Park, Colorado. Got to go here for Christmas with my family over the break. Every year at the beginning of the year, we have a staff retreat involving all staff across all campuses. We get to spend several days fellowshipping, worshiping, praying, and preparing our hearts for the start of a new semester. We read a book together and discuss it at retreat. This year, we read The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene H. Peterson. A good chunk of this book Mr. Peterson spends time defining the word "pastor". He claims it has been distorted by our culture and needs to be reclaimed. One of the adjectives he used to redefine what is means to be a pastor is apocalyptic. Now he doesn't mean we are to hunker down in bunkers and store up for a coming apocalypse. Peterson says: "Pastors are the persons in the church communities who repeat and insist on these kingdom realities against the world appearances, and who therefore must be apocalyptic. In its dictionary meaning apoc