I started this blog 12 years ago this week. It has been a wonderful project, and from the beginning, it helped me understand my calling to vocational ministry.

Ironically, the work of vocational ministry has made weekly posts both harder to sustain and, somehow, less necessary.

This week I attended a preaching workshop of sorts, and they invited us to write our “Preaching Manifesto.” We were only given a few minutes, but that was enough. More time would have meant more wordsmithing, and I likely would have over-edited it.

Instead, I decided to share it here as a kind of anniversary reflection. It is my attempt to answer two questions: What do I want from this preaching life? And why do I preach?

Thanks for reading it.

I hope this preaching life
drives me to curious places
in the text I love
but do not worship.

I hope my preaching
invites people into curiosity
because
my curiosity is somehow
infectious
just as it was born from
the curiosity others held
that infected me.

I was transformed by what I found.
No. I AM transformed by what I find and
by what I feel when I expose
the text to my curiosity.

I discovered that I am beloved.

No one could tell me that and
have me believe it, but
drawing close to God
allowed me to feel it and
once I felt it,
I couldn’t unfeel it, and
never would want to.

Then, having opened my heart
to God’s heart, I felt my heart
my love,
turn toward others and
their belovedness
became like a light
and I was as a moth to a flame
completely captivated
by how lovely they were,
how lovable they are.

I want to preach because
I am captivated.

What do I want from this preaching life?
To know that somehow, someway
I invited others to experience
their own belovedness …
and become captivated by
how lovely others are.