the Essays & Reflections
Author: Paul Prins
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Our Calling should Inspire Us and not Define Us
There’s excitement as people discover, discern, and accept their life calling. Yet if life were a single day this would equate to little more than putting on a single sock. You have not yet reached the door, and have the majority of the real work ahead. With this perspective we can accept our calling as a critical step
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Honest Realizations: Being Meaningful to Someone
The ministry/missionary world is immersed and exists within a single verse from the Apostle Paul – 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 (full passage below). It’s the passage where he talks about becoming all things to all people so that he might save some of them. This weekend that passage was weighing on me as I dreamt of
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Becoming a Bi-Vocational Pastor
The natural question one is asked as they graduate from Seminary is: What is next for you/Where is God calling you? With only 82 days between me and my Masters of Divinity this question is looming in the bushes (or shrubbery if you will). For my wife and I we will be bi-vocational pastors. Choosing Bi-Vocational This does
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The Resurrection is a sneak peak, so #WhatRapture
In my opinion many Christians who affirm the Rapture fail to take into account the simple reality that Jesus was already transformed before he was ever taken up into the sky. The leaving the disciples and ascending into the sky seemed to be a requirement for; the interim period we are now in (between the resurrection and the consummation of history) and
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My Dad Sharing about his Faith and ALS
Back on November 7th (2010) my dad got the opportunity to share with his faith community at Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church where he was at with his ALS diagnosis and his faith. At this point he had just begun to use his wheel chair. This 13 minute conversation took place 266 days before he past away from complications
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The truth is that there is Truth…
”The truth is that there is Truth, but not for us, only for God. This is the appropriation or recontextualizing of the hermeneutics of finitude I propose.” Merold Westphal I really need to get into his work once my schedule lightens up more.
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What makes something Great?
Yesterday morning I found myself thinking about greatness and faith. I have come across individuals who hold that something done with Christ is automatically great. It isn’t that I would discount the importance of living a life with the Spirit, and honoring God with our times and talents. It is that I have issue with
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Into Post-Modernity – Thoughts?
Reading a book by Dr. Alice P Mathews (Preaching that Speaks to Women) and felt this quote was approprate and helpful (slightly adapted to make it readable without needed to read the whole chapter). A Modern knower can be a liberal or a conservative but cannot be a radical because the systems that taught them
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Sermon: my Darkness
The sermon is an experimental one for me (why it is being done in my living room). The purpose of it is to dive into the genera of the text and try to focus on how to bring forth the genera (and emotion) of the text through the preaching event. More than simply restating what
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Aesthetics – Thoughts on True Art from Sayers
I have been working through a great book by mid-century literary scholar Dorothy Sayers (Wikipedia) that touch on the topic of art and expression. They were very meaningful so I thought I would quote a portion below, if you want to read the work it’s called ‘Toward a Christian Esthetic‘ in the book Letters to