Matt Erickson

Here is “The Weekend Wanderer” for 24 April 2021 with Esau McCaulley on talking to his kids about the Derek Chauvin verdict, Emily Downe’s short film featuring Miroslav Volf, “My Dream, My Taste,” Paul Kingsnorth on Simone Weil and the need for roots, and so much more.

I’m blogging my way through Eugene Peterson’s Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work over the next several weeks. Here is the third post: “The Pastoral Work of Story-Making: Ruth.”

Currently reading: A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold 📚

Here is the “The Weekend Wanderer” for 17 April 2021 with David Garrison on praying for the Muslim World during Ramadan, Phillip Holmes reviewing Thompson & Kwon’s book on reparations, Ali Kjergaard on reading aloud, Tara Haelle on our depleted “surge capacity,” and more.

I’m blogging my way through Eugene Peterson’s Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work over the next several weeks. Here is the second post: “The Pastoral Work of Prayer-Directing: Song of Songs.”

Here is the latest edition of “The Weekend Wanderer” with Christian clergy kidnapped in Nigeria, Jonathan Pennington on the good life, Matthew D. Kim on addressing racism based on imago Dei, Dallas Willard on judging, Adam Kirsch on “getting” poetry, and more.

Here is George Herbert’s poem “Easter Wings” in the first installment of a new blog series #PoetryforEaster 2021.

I’m beginning a blog series on Eugene Peterson’s Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work over the next several weeks. Here is the first post: “Recovering Pastoral Practice”.

Currently reading: Five smooth stones for pastoral work by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

Here is Geoffrey Hill with his poem “Lachrimae Amantis” in the latest and final installment of #PoetryforLent here in 2021.

Here is E. Pauline Johnson, also known as Tekahionwake, with her poem “Brier (Good Friday)” in the latest installment of #PoetryforLent

This past weekend I just finished reading the very interesting and thought-provoking book Harlan Hubbard: Life and Work (Blazer Lectures) by Wendell Berry 📚

Just finished reading: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Egan, Dan 📚

Here is the latest edition of “The Weekend Wanderer” with Leland Ryken on teaching literature and the Bible as literature, a conversation with Li-Young Lee in Image, Stanley Hauerwas on peacemaking, black spirituals as resistance, and much more.

Here is “The Weekend Wanderer” for 13 March 2021 with Jay Kim on learning about embodied church, RIP evangelist Luis Palau, Beth Moore leaves the SBC, Tim Keller on “Growing my faith in the face of my death,” Frederick Douglass and the liberating word, and much more.

Here is Luci Shaw with “Judas / Peter” in the latest installment of #PoetryforLent

Currently reading: The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary by Pennington, Jonathan T. 📚

Here is Gerard Manley Hopkins with “I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day” in the latest installment of #PoetryforLent

Currently reading: The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture by Wendell Berry 📚

Here is “The Weekend Wanderer” for 27 February 2021 with Alan Jacobs on Amazon taking Ryan T. Anderson’s book down, Kirk Franklin’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Jamie Smith on philosophy and the present moment, and so much more.

Here is Langston Hughes with “The Ballad of Mary’s Son” in the latest installment of #PoetryforLent

As I began a preaching series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount this past weekend, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what it means to be “blessed” in terms of the μακάριος life described in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.

Here is “The Weekend Wanderer” for 20 February 2021 with Korie Little Edwards on the failings and potential of the multiethnic church, various reflections on Ravi Zacharias, the UN speaks out on Algerian church closings, 100 years of the Bruderhof, and more.

The #PoetryforLent series for 2021 kicks off today with John Donne’s “Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness.”

What spiritual practices are you taking up for #Lent this year? How do you hope these will help you draw near to God during the Lenten journey?