The following was written as a homework assignment in my Practical Ministry course, with an eye towards preaching someday in a wedding service.
This year I celebrated my Silver Wedding Anniversary. Marie and I were married in a big Episcopal Church in 1984, only 3 years after the fairytale wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana captivated the English-speaking world.
It was also only 5 years after the publication of a new Book of Common Prayer for the Episcopal Church in America. As lo…
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Added by stevene on October 23, 2009 at 1:00pm —
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I teased that there was more to say about my last days as a bachelor, and here it is.
My surgery was six weeks and 19 hours before my wedding. It was a surprise for everybody, which makes sense: One doesn't really PLAN for emergency cancer surgery. I called in "sick" Friday morning, the day of my surgery, and told the receptionist I was in the hospital. She asked if it was serious. What do you say to that?
Marie and I recuperated together, a matched pair of singletons (since her ovary had been…
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Added by stevene on September 19, 2009 at 6:26pm —
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It's now been more than 5 months since my last blog entry, and while I haven't posted anything about the year I got engaged and married, I have been thinking about that quarter century (that phrase makes me feel
veryold. A lot of things have been happening in those 5 months, and I will share some of those. But for now I want to tell you about the first time I avoided death by disease.
Just to recap, my girlfriend and I got engaged on Tax Day, 1984. We had been friends for a year, and "ha…
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Added by stevene on September 16, 2009 at 1:03am —
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This year is a special year for me. In terms of the greatest stresses in one's life, I hit the jackpot. I had started a new job in 1983, the first well-paying position of my life (3 years after college), so it was the first full year of my first good job. I got engaged to my best friend and musical partner Marie Gustafson (now my wife). I moved into her house with my 2 cats, 2 dozen instruments and 3 computers. I quit (and unquit) smoking. I re-established a relationship with my mother. I renewe…
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Added by stevene on April 11, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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Answering the Call #11: My Top 10 Musical Influences
(podcast version available at
ATC011pc)
Recently I was “tagged” in Facebook by a church friend to detail “My Top 10 Musical Influences” and, of course, to “tag” 9 others to spread the fun. I enjoyed being able to “tag” the musician listed in #1. Bernie Horn was a year older than me in high school. In fact, I think he’s still a year older. But he was also a year ahead of me. When my family moved to a…
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Added by stevene on February 23, 2009 at 11:00am —
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(podcast version available at
ATC010pc)
“Situational leadership” is a cute phrase for a powerful tool in the management, training and ongoing development of people in the 21st century. Unfortunately, it is also the sort of sound bite that lends itself to misunderstanding and misapplication. Rather than a simplistic suggestion that a leader should adjust tactics to fit individual moments, situational leadership is an astute strategy for advancing the dev…
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Added by stevene on February 21, 2009 at 10:00am —
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(podcast version available at
ATC009pc)
I just woke up. Almost every day this week I have slept until at least 11 o’clock, but today I woke up at 8 o’clock. While this is a far cry from getting up at 5:30, which I used to do in order to get to work by 7:30, it’s a significant event in my recovery from foot surgery. What’s different today? I dreamed of books. I dreamed of giving a speech in a venue that was a cross between a megachurch, a Borders Booksto…
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Added by stevene on February 20, 2009 at 11:00am —
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(podcast version available at
ATC008)
Breton Fisherman's Prayer
.....Protect me oh Lord for my boat is so small
.....Protect me oh Lord for my boat is so small
.....My boat is so small and your sea is so wide
.....Protect me oh Lord (1995, "Celebrate With Song", Girl Guides of Canada)
Several years ago I belonged to a congregation whose pastor had retired as a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, and he used the penultimate (next-to-last) line of this poem whe…
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Added by stevene on February 12, 2009 at 11:30pm —
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(podcast version available at http://tinyurl.com/atc007)
.....They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship,
.....to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many
.....wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had
.....believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their
.....property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have nee…
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Added by stevene on January 27, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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Several years ago I left "regular employment" and started my own consulting thing. Some of what I was doing was a natural continuation of the accounting and financial analysis work I had done for one of the biggest hospitals in the Pittsburgh region. I had several churches with whom I worked on accounting issues. I had a few small businesses similarly engaged. And in 2004 I went to Nashville to be trained as a Certified Financial Counselor by Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University staff.
Then…
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Added by stevene on January 21, 2009 at 12:30am —
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In a musical history of Vaudeville there is a song call "Let us entertain you." I often pictured that title as "Lettuce Entertain You" but any way you slice it, it's the Broadway Musical "Gypsy!" the biography of Gypsy Rose Lee and her rise from one member of a family act to one of the greatest strippers to entertain in that quintessential performers' venue called "Vaudeville."
When I went to college, I started as a music major, intending to graduate with two degrees: A Bachelor of Arts in Musi…
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Added by stevene on January 12, 2009 at 12:42am —
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.....Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed
.....everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as
.....head over all. (1 Chronicles 29:13)
I remember a few years ago listening to a Crown Financial Ministries radio program and hearing a discussion on
....."What do you hold dear now that you would NOT give up to accomplish a mission given you from God."
Shortly thereafter, my fin…
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Added by stevene on January 9, 2009 at 7:59am —
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Happy New Year!
It's 3:00 a.m. and somewhere in the White House the phone is ringing. Who do you want answering that call?
HEY BARRY! IT'S FOR YOU! IT'S STEVENE!
Of course by now you know that I am compulsive about injecting humor into any situation. So here's the situation:
1) I'm sitting on my hospital bed getting ready for a third surgery in five days, on my right foot. I believe this is the last debriding of dead or diseased tissue from my worse-off diabetic leg.
2) I'm about two hundred…
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Added by stevene on January 8, 2009 at 3:30am —
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....(podcast version available at
ATC081221)
Is it deep spiritual connectedness, or anti-social rebellion? I’m talking about myself, and my unwillingness to “celebrate” Christmas before the evening of the 24th of December. To be honest, I’m not sure myself.
I have been a performing musician in religious settings since the third grade, and maybe more than that. I can remember singing in an Anglican-style boys’ choir as far back as 1965, and it’s possibl…
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Added by stevene on December 21, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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(podcast version available at
ATC081209)
Have you ever written a Personal Mission Statement? In many resume’ writing courses we are taken through a detailed self-study process in order to figure out what out “Dream Job” might be. I’ve been through this process four times (formally), and have taught classes using this process several times. It’s a process that is very challenging, but also very rewarding.
Each time through this process I have carefully…
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Added by stevene on December 10, 2008 at 3:00pm —
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I. INTRODUCTION
............The search for that personal definition of success … is really a search for oneself.
........................Charles Handy (Covey, 2002)
............Instruct a wise man and he will add to his learning.
........................Solomon (Proverbs 9:9 NIV)
............Any questions? Yeah, what’s a cohort?
........................Audrey Wells (2000)
A. Introduction
I take pride in the divine coincidence of sharing my name with the first deacon in the New Testament, Stephe…
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Added by stevene on November 22, 2008 at 6:30pm —
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At several points in my life I have enjoyed writing. In this post I am working out some of my thoughts about writing now. If you don't want to read the background, skip down to the row of stars. I need to write these things, but you don't need to read them...
* * * * skip the next 7 paragraphs * * * *
In grad school, for instance, I enjoyed weaving together multiple threads into a coherent thought, or at least what I hoped was a coherent thought. My profs generally liked what I wrote, so I was…
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Added by stevene on September 15, 2008 at 7:15pm —
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How do we go about building involvement? This is the question foremost on my mind right now.
A few years ago, in the job I think was the best match ever for my gifts and temperament, I took a local vision for food ministry from a local concept of a ministerium to a regional program covering 22 counties in parts of 5 states. At its peak, FoodSHARE distributed more than 16,000 packages of food in a month. After nearly three years of this growth, the Board of Directors wanted to see more developme…
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Added by stevene on April 16, 2008 at 10:24pm —
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My meeting with Pastor Butch this morning went very well. For the first time in quite awhile I am looking forward in a positive way to what God has in store for me. For much of the last couple of years I have felt like I was walking in quicksand, looking through foggy glasses, with no clue as to the direction my ministry should pursue. The door has closed on my ministry as a professional Christian financial counselor. Another door appears to be opening.
Professionally, I have been most effectiv…
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Added by stevene on April 15, 2008 at 8:30pm —
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I am meeting with my new pastor tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what I expect to happen, but I'm looking for some ideas on how to get off the block. I'm 51 years old and I don't know what I want to be when I grow up...
I began attending one Assembly of God church about 8 years ago. I was intrigued when I watched a TV show where they had hosted the memorial service for the founder of the local Christian TV (Cornerstone TV is national now). The sanctuary was nice, the music was top-shelf, and it l…
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Added by stevene on April 14, 2008 at 8:10pm —
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