⏰ Is it too late, ?!

Published: Mon, 05/19/25

Updated: Mon, 05/19/25

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Leading your fai

Hello, -

Let's start this Monday with a meditation I wrote for you. . . on wondering if it really is too late...

When we think it’s too late

I was flipping through the Christian Century that came this week while I was in New York City for commencement. I couldn’t understand the Gothic church doorway, the rainbow light and the word “camp.” Three things that didn’t seem to fit together.**

But actually it was the following words that sparked this morning’s reflection.

“If only you’d gotten here sooner,” say Mary. Then Martha. Their brother Lazarus is dead.

That feeling. That terrible feeling that it’s too late.

I have witnessed or experienced this feeling of “too late” so many times in my life.

Too late to say the right thing.

^^^

Too late to change the course of history.

Too late to set things right.

Too late to mend the broken relationship.

Too late to say goodbye.

Too late to leave when I should.

These declarations come with feelings of disappointment. Defeat. Rumination and second-guessing. Loss. Sadness. Grief. They can lead to depression.

What I also know is that sometimes the declaration “it’s too late!” and the attending feelings are premature.

To be sure, accidents happen. People die. The course of history changes detrimentally. Yet I think we declare, “it’s too late,” too often.

Our anxiety and our fears can drive us into a state of distress and believing it’s too late to do anything to change the relationships, situations, and directions around us.

It’s easy to underestimate our own powers of saying the right thing...

Is it too late? Keep reading...

Graduation Blessings

It is that time of year! Graduations are happening every weekend! I created a series of blessings made for sharing.

I hope you will download, print, and add a personal message. The blessing are for graduates, teachers and professors, and for family members. Print them on cardstock and they make a lovely 8.5 x 11 card. Or read them as part of a baccalaureate service or your church recognition of graduates.

Downloadable Graduation Blessings

Happy Book Birthday!

It's not too late to celebrate Pastoral Imagination ... this month or give it as a gift to your favorite seminary grad, newly ordained clergyperson, or someone starting CPE. Get a discount code below!

This month marks the 4th birthday of Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life. What a delight I've had sharing this book with students, seminary professors, and ministers. Maybe you are new to 3MMM and you'd like to know more?

Let me share a few things that matter to me about the book, and more importantly about learning ministry in practice!

From the introduction of Pastoral Imagination:

My interest in understanding the lives of ministers and helping them learn from one another runs deep. I was fortunate that my first academic job, co-directing the LPI study, allowed me to pursue this love. [A few] years ago, I knew that I wanted to get these stories out to the world in a way that was both easily available and accessible. During a vacation in the summer of 2018, I opened up my journal and made a list from A to Z two times. If I could make a list of topics that filled fifty-two weeks, I was ready to begin. I think it took me about thirty minutes to make that list. That was the birth of 3MMM, an online platform that makes the stories of ministry and my reflection on them as a researcher, professor, and minister available to people who need inspiration and information to support their practice of ministry. Many stories from season one of 3MMM fill the pages of Pastoral Imagination.

Read a review of Pastoral Imagination by Dr. Marcus Hong.

Although there is no map that shows a single route to learning the practice of ministry, a multilayered map is a good metaphor for the fifty chapters of this book. Each chapter is like another layer of the landscape. One shows the topography and water table. Another shows the plants and trees and animal trails. Yet another layer indicates different historical boundaries across time. Another layer of the map fills in the current streets and dwellings. Yet another slice highlights the businesses and pricing of gas, hotels, and restaurants. Another layer might show live traffic or weather, and still another shows a particular route to a particular destination. All the maps together are telling you about a single place, and together they are giving you a richer understanding of that place. Only you can go to the place itself and experience it. But these thin slices of the map will help you prepare for what you will experience for yourself. They will give you language, stories, and possibilities to help you cultivate your own pastoral imagination for life and leadership.

Campbell-Reed, Eileen R.. Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life (p. 17). Kindle Edition.

I compiled 20 fun facts about the Pastoral Imagination book. I'll give you just a taste of them below. Fun! A few Funny. And informative.

20 Fun Facts about Pastoral Imagination

Pastoral Imagination books and journals are a wonderful graduation gift! The book is ideal for a ministry student graduating from college, seminary, or with a doctor of ministry degree. So for the rest of May and June, use the code GRADUATE in our 3MMM Shop and choose any Pastoral Imagination books and journals for a 20% discount.
Expires June 30, 2025

Series on Calling

with Bonnie Miller-McLemore

This spring we have been taking a deep dive together into calling (the good, the troubling, and the surprising) with Dr. Bonnie Miller-McLemore. She's helped us think about conflicted, blocked, and changed callings. She is reading to us from her new book Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies about Calling. And if you've missed any episode, all the links are here. You will be provoked, and I think you will also feel seen, by Bonnie's way of writing about vocation.