Greatheart's Table Randall R. Greenwald

Quite a few of you are new and may be uncertain of what we’re doing here or why, and many may wonder where the name comes from. For all such mysteries, I recommend that you scroll back and listen to episode 67 called “Mr. Greatheart and This Metaphorical Table.”







And if that doesn’t answer your questions, shoot me an email.







No doubt you’ve heard of a little thing called “Artificial Intelligence.” Companies and churches and, yes, pastors are scrambling to ask AI “what can you do for me.” In this episode I wonder if that is the right question to be asking.







Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:







Here is info about Gloo.







I’ve mentioned Gloo before here and here.







Here is the article about Gloo’s “hackathon.”







Mike Sacasas is much smarter, better read, and more articulate than I. Also, his posts are much longer than mine. He writes from within an orthodox Christian tradition, but he writes into a space that does not assume that tradition.







This post on technological liturgies gives a feel for the direction in which his thinking goes, as does this post on asking the right questions.







Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future, (United States: Vintage, 2000), p. 55.







When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work.















Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / a href="https...

In this episode, we take a somber turn, and consider pastoral grief. I can’t recall this being addressed elsewhere, and yet as I’ve thought about it, it’s hard to think of a more consistent theme pulsing across the pastoral landscape than loss and the consequent experience of grief. My concern is what we do with all that grief.







Feel free to email me questions or comments. If you like what you find here, please review and rate it and, pass it along to others. Greatheart’s Table is free, of course, but we appreciate the support we get at Patreon.com.Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:























Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video















To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

I write Greatheart’s Table with pastors in mind, but I know that often the themes I address apply much more broadly, and so many of you are not pastors at all. This post, aimed towards sharpening pastoral ethical standards, nevertheless lands broadly. As Christians, not just as pastors, who we are may be far more important than what we accomplish.







I encourage you to sign up for the Substack newsletter which parallels this podcast, as next week the third Monday post will show up only there.







And if you are able to support this work, know that it would be greatly appreciated. Links for all of this are below.







Thanks again for listening in to the conversation around Greatheart’s Table.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:







The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.







Pastoral Code of Ethics of the National Association of Evangelicals















Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video















To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

This episode is another reset, one that first aired in June of 2021, and it addresses a theme I’ve often returned to: the need for pastors and others in ministry to have friends.







As I get older and my friends move away or in other ways my friendships change I’m reminded of how difficult finding and keeping real friends can be. Nevertheless, as this post reminds us, the need is real lest we become strange and crotchety or worse.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:







Patrick O’Brian, The Ionian Mission (United States: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 166.







If I make frequent references to these books it is because O’Brian’s insight into humanity is so rich. It’s also because I’m a fan.







When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!















Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video















To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

Hello, all. I’m Randy Greenwald and I want to welcome you to Greatheart’s Table.







After the last episode, some have taken to addressing me “Whiney Pastor.” Given the positive response that that episode generated, I’m okay with that. Contrary to what some thought after listening, I’m doing fine. A key part of that fineness is the freedom to be honest as a pastor, and I have my friends and my church to thank for giving me that freedom.







This episode is another reset – it originally posted in June of 2021 and, ironically, it picks up this theme of the value of having friends with whom one can speak, and whine, honestly.







Thanks for listening. Be sure to rate, review, and most of all recommend Greatheart’s Table as you are able.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:







When I began ministry, a recommended book was Survival Tactics in the Parish published in 1977 by Lyle Schaller. Recently, 2016, my friend Michael Osborne published Surviving Ministry (Wipf and Stock). The theme in these titles is revealing.







It’s the peril of forced “quiet” that has led me to title this post and the next one after the movie “A Quiet Place” and its sequel. The reasons will be made clear in a future follow post to this one.







Harrison Scott Key, Congratulations, Who Are You Again? (United States: Harper Perennial, 2018), p. 125.







Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.















Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video















To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and others who care about ministry. I’m Randy Greenwald, and, in the words of Firefly’s Malcolm Reynolds, “I aim to misbehave.”







Well, not much, really. I’m going to whine, and some may judge it to be in poor taste for a pastor to whine. But I disagree. Sometimes it is healthy, and we need to be given permission to indulge.







I’m delighted to have you listening. I encourage listeners also to subscribe to the written version found at Substack.com, as there is a third Monday post you might enjoy that shows up there. And if you’re able to support Greatheart’s Table at Patreon.com, that would be greatly appreciated.















We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.























You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.























EPISODE NOTES







Notes and resources relevant to this episode:







Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:30, 31)







1 Kings 19:10







External matters weary me as well. I’m tired of the way women or minorities or the vulnerable are treated in the church, for example. But then again, I’m tired of being expected to feel everything equally and all at once.







Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.















Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / LyricsOutro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video















To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.