Matt Erickson
As part of my ongoing posts on my recent sabbatical, here is my Sabbatical Reading List with a few comments here and there about the books and about reading books out loud (maybe more on the whole topic of reading aloud coming next week).
Friends, I appreciate your prayer support as I work on my first sermon since returning from sabbatical. It is a joy to return to this work of listening to God and God’s Word and speaking out of what I hear. This week’s focus is Isaiah 40. Much thanks!
My first post after returning from sabbatical was all about “What I did on my sabbatical,” but this next one answers the perennially hard question, “How was your sabbatical?“
Today is my first day back at Eastbrook Church after a three month pastoral sabbatical. This week, I’m sharing updates from the past three months, beginning with this overview post, “What I Did on My Sabbatical.”
Just completed reading: Inheriting Paradise by Vigen Guroian 📚
Just finished reading: The Idiot (Vintage Classics) by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚 Not necessarily my favorite work by Dostoevsky but there are some wonderful portions within this book, including the wonderful line: “beauty will save the world.”
Enjoying the beauty of Door County, Wisconsin, as the colors change and leaves fall during the week.
Another day at the writing desk, rewriting a chapter and having conversations with authors and their books.
Doing research for the next round of manuscript rewrites for my book project. Thankful for good libraries nearby, like Marquette University’s Raynor Library and the Milwaukee County Library System,
Just finished reading aloud, with my wife, Kelly, Glowrushes by Roberto Piumini. What a beautiful book that was moving throughout. 📚
Just finished the delightful The 13 Clocks by James Thurber 📚
Currently reading: The Art of Being a Creature by Ragan Sutterfield 📚
“As Jesus walked this earth, living and working among all kinds and classes of people, he gave us the divine paradigm for conjugating all the verbs of our living.” - Richard J. Foster in Streams of Living Water
Love this photo from a trip out west this past year. Makes me want to enter that craggy cave path again.
When I draw near to the end of a sermon series, I share resources I utilized in my study and preparation for sermons. Here is the bibliography for our recent series, “God’s Grace for an Imperfect Church: 1 Corinthians.”
Looking forward to getting our staff into Richard Foster’s classic book, Streams of Living Water, this coming ministry year (Aug-May). I loved this book when it first came out and am so thankful to work through it together with my team.
You Have Loved Us First - a poem by Søren Kierkegaard
Found this while walking through a back alley in the Third Ward in Milwaukee this past weekend.
Bob was right…
Just finished reading: The Care of Souls by Harold L. Senkbeil 📚 What a wonderful book on pastoral ministry.
Caught the moon over Spider Lake before sunset up here at Fort Wilderness while on a walk last night. So beautiful.
So thankful to return to a favorite, beautiful place in northern Wisconsin at Fort Wilderness where I’ll teach for a weeklong family camp.
Currently reading: Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam 📚
Just finished reading Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay 📚