We know Holy Week is full and busy. We want to offer something for you in these holy days. An idea, a book or two, a podcast. We know your work matters, and we are grateful for the ways you live out #pastoralimagination.  

And, a small gift for you - scroll down to the end for a Pastoral Imagination lock screen image for your phone. 

PALM SUNDAY 

 
As we raise palm branches and consider what this ritual means for us today, we are remembering our conversation with Dr. Stephanie Crumpton. She offered some powerful questions: Who is a revolutionary? What is it to be in the fight for justice? What are you here to do? 

TABLES

How can the tables you share become places of remembrance, witness, lament, and joy? How can you move through fear? 

We need ritual and memory to help us integrate and live well with loss. How could you harness and highlight the gift of rituals and tables to make space for grief and questions?

SORROW AND LOVE

"Sorrow and love flow mingled down," the hymn tells us. Life and love, friendship and loss, joy and beauty and grief are all mixed together. Vocational grief? This prayer offers space for grief and hope. 

Like sand, clay, and water become pottery, our losses, griefs and joys can be turned into something beautiful, crafted into the very art of life.

A conversation with Shane Claiborne left us with a question that also feels like Good Friday. I asked him about a question he wrestles with, and he said this: What does love require of me right now? 

Imagine moving through the rest of Holy Week with that question. Hear more of that conversation, and a reading list, here: 

SELF COMPASSION

How can we practice self compassion, even in grief? How can silence sustain and shape us?   

We can find assurance in the quiet. The holy is always near, even attending to us through tragedy and loss. May God’s steady quiet and deep peace of the quiet earth comfort and calm your heart this week. 

RESURRECTION

What new thing have you learned lately? What ideas, relationships, habits of faith have died and are now coming to life again? 

How are you practicing resurrection today? This week? This season? What new practices might you take up in this Easter season? I'll share a podcast below that talks about how the practice of writing has helped me embrace joy and walk alongside others in a new practice. 

I pray that you will lean into joy. Practice resurrection. Take a big exhale.

GRATITUDE 

Holy Week is a beautiful and sometimes exhausting experience for clergy leaders. You plan and lead the highest highs and lowest lows of the Christian story in just one week's time.

Don't let another day go by. Thank a minister for all their love and hard work. Help them hold on to joy. Even a small word or gesture of thanks can go a long way. 

Enjoy and share these Minister Appreciation free printable pages! 

More for your Pastoral Imagination in Holy Week

PHONE BACKGROUND/LOCK SCREEN

You have so many things on your mind and heart this week. Maybe it would be nice to have a prompt within reach? If it helps, save one of these phone lock screen images to guide your Holy Week practices.  

Blessings of Holy Week and Easter to you, .