Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

pastor

  • Why That Thing You Tell Your Pastor On Sunday Morning Might Not Get Done

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    2 min read

    1. My body got up hours before my brain. 2. For pastors, leading worship is exhausting. 3. And sometimes, so is coffee hour. 4. Maybe I’m running late because a small child crawled into bed and I had to pretend to be sleeping so that they’d get back to sleep before I get up. 5.…

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  • Priest as Jesus?

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    7 min read

    I don’t know what those first followers did after he was gone. I know they cried, some wailed, all wondered what to do. Where to go. Who they are now. If we follow him, and these other, really smart, highly educated, super powerful leaders don’t like what our leader (is he really the Messiah?) had to say,…

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  • Pastor or Priest?

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    8 min read

    My friend and teacher, the Rev. Dr. D. Jay Koyle teaches that identity and worship is connected with belief and choice. We make decisions for our personal piety and liturgical acts from a place of understanding the purpose behind the choice. Much of our tradition is inherited through piety and local custom, rather than historical…

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  • Why priests must learn to code

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    7 min read

    I’m generally not one to encourage business models in church: we’re generally saturated with them already. Or, more to the point, we apply them indiscriminately, with the idea that churches in general need to function more efficiently and take on a more corporate strategy. My own denomination, The Episcopal Church, did this with gusto in…

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  • The Tie or the Collar

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    1 min read

    You have a preference. Everyone does. You want your pastor or priest to look a certain way. You know other people have a preference, too. Their preference may match yours. It may not. You know the pastor or priest has her preference. Hopefully you care what that is. The question is not so much whether…

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  • At the end of a very long week

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    3 min read

    I have decided to end the week like I begin it. Or how I hoped to begin the week. At Starbucks, drinking coffee, writing. One activity I know brings fulfillment and hope for me.   Of course, this week was different. It didn’t begin with writing and planning and organizing. It began with a phone call.…

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