Ruth Everhart

Writer / Pastor

Leading the Small Church

A Memoir for Anyone Who Has Loved and/or Left a Church

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Barbara Melosh Fittingly enough, I met Barbara Melosh at a writing week hosted by Collegeville Institute (MN) back in 2012. She joined a writing group that I had begun in 2006, and made the commitment to drive all the way from Wilmington, DE to northern VA to attend every other week. I mention that because I run into so many people who think it’s possible to write books in a casual way. In my experience that’s just not true. People who write books have prioritized that activity, and have said No to many other things in order to say Yes to the book.

I’m so glad Barbara said Yes to this book! It’s a memoir of her first year in ordained ministry, which she came to after a long career as a professor of American Studies. As a second career, she served a Lutheran church in a struggling blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore. Barbara brings so many lenses to her experience — reluctant believer, academic, energetic newbie pastor, deeply observant contemplative — that she holds up a prism for the rest of us. She was determined to turn the church around, but it was something else that turned around. [Read more…] about A Memoir for Anyone Who Has Loved and/or Left a Church

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What We Plant, a sermon on Mark 4:26-34

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Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Jesus also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. (Mark 4:26-34)

A seed is a mysterious thing. A kernel of corn. A grain of wheat. A mustard seed. Each contains the instructions of how to reproduce itself. Not only that, each seed contains the instructions for the next generation to do the same for the generation to follow. In other words, a seed stretches into the future. A seed also stretches into the past. Each seed contains the memory of the failures and successes of previous generations.

The farmers in Jesus’ day would have been awed by such a thing. Today we might fancy that we understand genetic coding. After all, we learned about DNA in high school. We grasp [Read more…] about What We Plant, a sermon on Mark 4:26-34

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How Will Your Church Fight Sexual Assault in 2018?

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The January issue of Christian Century includes two articles I wrote. The cover story is my #MeToo #ChurchToo story about abuse at the hands of my senior pastor. Of course I want you to read that one!

But don’t miss the other article, which is a list:

18 ways that churches can fight sexual assault in 2018.

What would you add?

 

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“A Pastor’s #MeToo Story” at Christian Century

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I’m happy — and rather nervous — to say that my article is on the cover of the Christian Century (January 2018). It’s a deeply personal story that I have not told before:         A Pastor’s #MeToo Story

I also wrote an accompanying list:  18 Ways Churches Can Fight Sexual Assault in 2018.

As always, I look forward to your feedback. #ChurchToo

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Anniversary of Ordination

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This weekend I’m celebrating my anniversary of ordination, a significant date that goes unremarked by anyone but myself. On a whim I searched through a few old photos, and thought I’d share this one with you.

In this photo I’m wearing a stole that my mother (left) and my aunt (right) embroidered for my graduation from seminary. The picture was snapped at our house in Minneapolis right after the May 1989 graduation. (Geeky Trivia: Guess whose framed portrait is watching over the proceedings from behind.)

I was especially surprised by the gift of the stole since the ordination of women was a controversial subject in my world. I wasn’t entirely sure that my mother and aunt approved. Actually, I don’t think they were sure either. Perhaps they stitched their way into approval with that stole.

Don’t I look young? I was so excited to have finished seminary and be on the cusp of everything wonderful! I was pregnant in this picture. Clara, our second daughter, was born in December and by the following fall, we moved to upstate New York for my first call. I was ordained in Penfield, NY on October 14, 1990, a ceremony I muse about here as a Kodak moment.

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Can You Go Home Again?

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Everyone has to leave home eventually (although I do know one fella who never did, he just outlived his parents!). Perhaps what differs is the manner in which we leave.

What was it like when you left home? Did you launch happily, feeling supported and connected, or did you burn rubber on your way out? In my case, an unfortunate event — or yes, a series of them — catapulted me into the ether and sent me into free-fall.

Perhaps some of you have a story similar to mine — you found yourself loving Jesus, but not the church that introduced you to him, and you had to escape. [Read more…] about Can You Go Home Again?

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