Once again, as the old year passes and the new year beckons, it has been my custom to look back at my most popular posts of the year. This blog celebrated its Tenth Anniversary last Spring, and I passed the 1,000 mark for posts. Continue reading
Category Archives: blogging
My Blog is Ten Years’ Old: A Retrospective
In the Beginning: 2009-2010
I’d like to thank all of you who have dropped by this blog over the years. It is hard for me to believe a decade has passed since I began it. I started to write again as a personal act of healing which in time morphed into a new chapter of my ministry. Continue reading
My Top Ten Posts in 2018
Once again, as the old year passes and the new year beckons, it has been my custom to look back at my most popular posts of the year. Some years a theme emerges, and this year the theme is the idea of “transitions.” My two top posts were tributes to two extraordinary elders at their passing. There is also the sermon I preached at the baptism of my grandson in June. Other posts tried to bring some insight from Scripture and Tradition to bear on our broken world.
It is good to remind ourselves that even in tumultuous times like these the quotidian ebb and flow of life persists; there are births and deaths and the markings and celebrations therof.
Half of these posts were devotions I wrote for the United Church of Christ STILLSPEAKING project. I thank my editors for permission to republish them. Two of them were sermons I preached as a guest preacher.
About my Website: It is non-commercial and open source (but please give attribution if you quote or copy stuff). I pay for my domain name and for a WordPress tier that keeps you from having to see ads. I don’t make a penny on it, and there are no gimmicks. I had forty thousand visits in 2018, and I currently have 124 followers. Thank you all so much for visiting and come by again in 2019.
Here are the top ten posts for 2018 in order of popularity:
Gabriel J. Fackre (1926-2018) A Remembrance
A Eulogy for Rabbi Harold I. Salzmann
“We’re Still Learning.” A Devotion on Mark 10:42-45
“Down to Earth” A Sermon on John 13:1-17
“Small Beginnings” A Baptismal Sermon on Mark 4:30-34
“Unbearable Words” A Sermon on Amos 7:7-15
“We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace” A Devotion on Psalm 23:4
“SHARE!” A Devotion on Acts 2:44-45
“Living Water and Leaky Containers” A Devotion on Jeremiah 2:13
“Scorched by Holy Fire!” A Devotion on Jeremiah 20:8b-9
Once again, as in previous years, certain posts have had real staying power over the years. Many of these are sermons that desperate preachers found on search engines.
So here are my 10 all-time most popular posts since I started “When I Survey . . .” way back in 2009, also listed by popularity:
Why did Jesus refer to Herod as “That fox” in Luke 13:32?
“Rejoice! Rejoice!” A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent
“God Gives the Growth:” A Retirement Sermon
“The Lord Will Provide:” A Sermon on Genesis 22
“There is nothing to be afraid of!” A Sermon on Psalm 27:1-2
An Ordination Sermon: The Secret Sauce of Ministry. A Recipe in Two Parts
“God With Us” A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
“Behind Locked Doors” A Sermon on John 20:24
“The Message of the Cross” A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23-25
(My header picture is the view of the marsh behind my house from my back porch. I change it with the changing seasons. R.L. Floyd, 2018)
My Top Ten Posts from 2017
Once again, as the old year passes and the new year beckons, it has been my custom to look back at my most popular posts of the year. Some years a theme emerges, and this year the idea of perseverance seems to be the theme. In the light of God’s unending faithfulness and lovingkindness let us all live in hope in 2018. Continue reading
My Top Ten Posts from 2016
Once again as the old year passes and the new year beckons, it is my custom to look back at my most popular posts of the year. Some years a theme emerges, and this year it is the passing of old friends and mentors. Three of my professors from seminary died within a few weeks of each other early in the year, and my tributes to and remembrances of them were among the most popular posts.
Here in order are the most visited new posts from 2016:
A Prayer for Christmas (and for our time) from Karl Barth
A Tribute to Meredith Brook “Jerry” Handspicker 1932-2016
“Of Fig Trees and Second Chances” A Sermon on Luke 13:6-9
Remembering William L. Holladay
Let us not treat this wound too lightly. Reconciliation requires repentance
Mike Maguire and Me: Recollections from Long Ago
“Rich in Things and Poor in Soul” A Sermon on Luke 12:13-21
A tribute to Max L. Stackhouse
“Holy Weeping’ A Sermon on Romans 12:19 and Revelation 21:1-4
“Known knowns, known unknowns,” and the New Testament
As in previous years certain posts have had real staying power. Many of these are sermons that desperate preachers found on search engines. For example, my sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent was the number one entry if you Googled “Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent.” Consequently, I saw extraordinary spikes in traffic the week before.
So here are my all-time top ten posts since I started “When I Survey . . .” in 2009:
Why did Jesus refer to Herod as “That fox” in Luke 13:32”?
“Rejoice! Rejoice!” A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent
God Gives the Growth,” A Retirement Sermon
“The Lord Will Provide:” A Sermon on Genesis 22
“There is nothing to be afraid of!” A Sermon on Psalm 27:1-2
An Ordination Sermon: The Secret Sauce of Ministry. A Recipe in Two Parts
“God With Us” A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
“Behind Locked Doors” A Sermon on John 20:24
“The Message of the Cross” A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23-25
Another milestone for this blog is that it reached 100 followers this year. So I thank you all for your interest and support. Come back and visit now and again in 2017.
My Top Ten Posts from 2015
Once again as the old year passes and the new year beckons, it is my custom to look back at my most popular posts of the year. Here in order are the most visited new posts from 2015:
“The Message of the Cross” A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23-25
“Taking the Long View” Reflections of a Retired Pastor
“The God of the Far Off” Toward the Ministry of Inclusion
“The Cross and the Church: The Soteriology and Ecclesiology of P. T. Forsyth”
I was ordained forty years ago today
What I Love about the Gospel of Luke
“He’s Back!” A Christmas Story with a Happy Ending
“Better Late Than Never” Reflections on women in ministry.
“Come Here by the Waters” A Baptismal Hymn
And desperate preachers (of whom there seem to be many) and other net surfers brought in a surprising number of hits to my archived material from other years (“Ten Highly Effective Strategies . . .” for example, had a three-day run with over 9,000 hits, which speaks well either of people’s appreciation for satire or for the poor morale of the clergy.) In either case here are the ten most visited posts from previous years on this blog in 2015, which I began in 2009:
Ten Highly Effective Strategies for Crushing your Pastor’s Morale
Why did Jesus refer to Herod as “That fox” in Luke 13:32”?
“Rejoice! Rejoice!” A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent
“God Gives the Growth:” A Retirement Sermon
“The Lord Will Provide:” A Sermon on Genesis 22
“Behind Locked Doors” A sermon on John 20:24-29
“There is nothing to be afraid of!” A sermon on Psalm 27:1-2
“Anticipation”: A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent (Year C)
An Ordination Sermon: “The Secret Sauce of Ministry. A Recipe in Two Parts”
Thanks so much for dropping by, and keep visiting in 2016.
“Taking the Long View” Reflections of a Retired Pastor
(This is a talk I gave to “The Saints” which is the United Church of Christ retired clergy group in the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. The talk was in Cromwell, CT on May 14, 2015)
I’d like to thank you for inviting me to be with you today. I have great respect for ministry as a high and holy calling, and I enjoy the company of ministers. I am proud to be a minister, and this year is the 40th anniversary of my ordination. And it is good to be in the Connecticut Conference. I never served here, but my daughter, Rebecca Floyd Marshall, is an ordained minister here in CT, serving in Westport. If you bump into her at a Conference meeting introduce yourself.
My talk today is entitled “Taking the Long View” which was the title of a UCC STILL SPEAKING Daily Devotional I wrote for March 14 of last year. I see it was re-printed in your newsletter. I’m going to share with you some of my personal back-story behind the writing of this particular devotional.
I began the devotional with an anecdote about Ralph, a congregant of mine in my first church, who owned an apple orchard: “I drove over to see Ralph at his hilltop orchard a week after I had presided over his wife’s funeral and burial. He was well into his nineties and they had been married for seven decades. I was all of twenty-seven. It took me awhile to find him, because he was out planting apple trees. He seemed glad to see me and said, “You may wonder why I am planting trees that I will never live to see bear fruit. But it’s what I have always done, and I am not going to stop now. There were apple trees in this orchard when I came here that somebody else had planted, and there will be apple trees here after I’m gone.”
I’ve held onto Ralph’s words for forty years, and lately they have helped me as I think about what it means to be a retired minister. That hasn’t been easy for me. Because when I left my role as a pastor it seemed, at first, and for a long while, like the loss of my calling as a minister. Now I have come to realize that, although I am no longer a pastor of a congregation, I am still a minister. When I turned 65 the UCC Pension Boards mailed me a good little book by Paul Clayton entitled Called for Life (Perhaps you all got one, too). I love the play on words in the title, and I do believe we are “called for life” in both senses of the phrase. Continue reading
My Top Ten Posts of 2014
As the old year passes and the new year beckons, it is my custom to look back at my popular posts of the year. Here are the most visited new posts from 2014:
Norwood Days: We All have to Start Out Somewhere
Some Lenten Reflections on Forgiveness
The Calling of Disciples: A Sermon on Vocation
Remembering Willis Elliott: theologian and gadfly
On Holy Ground: A Sermon on Genesis 3:1-15
“Words to Live By” The King James Bible and its Legacy to the English Language
Braised Lamb Shanks with Cardamom, Garlic and Prunes
“By Their Groups Ye Shall Know Them”: Celebrating Max L. Stackhouse
The Christmas Tree in the Passing Lane: A Reflection on Advent
The Cross and Forgiveness
And these were the ten all-time most visited posts on this blog, which I began in 2009:
Why did Jesus refer to Herod as “That fox” in Luke 13:32?
“Confused? Interpreting Your Congregation’s Numbers”
Prayer for a Retired Pastor
“Rejoice! Rejoice!” A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent
“God Gives the Growth:” A Retirement Sermon
“There is nothing to be afraid of!” A sermon on Psalm 27:1-2
“The Lord Will Provide:” A Sermon on Genesis 22
An Ordination Sermon: “The Secret Sauce of Ministry. A Recipe in Two Parts”
“Behind Locked Doors” A sermon on John 20:24-29
A book review of Elizabeth Strout’s “Abide with Me”
Thanks so much for dropping by, and keep visiting in 2015.
Some Winter Posts Worthy of your Time
In my peregrinations around the blogosphere I came across two very wise and well-written posts by ministerial colleagues of mine. I hope you will check them out.
First, the incomparable Mary Luti, whose blog, sicut locutus est, should be on your blogroll, wrote “Why I Teach.” Here’s a sample:
I want students to take someone else’s wisdom for a serious test drive. I want them to rent with an option to buy; to suspend suspicion and develop a bias toward faith in the considered opinions of others; to respect the authority of authorities instead of keeping up the fiction that all ideas have equal value and that all opinions count the same.
Secondly, Emily Heath, a Vermont pastor and top-notch blogger, has a beautiful and bravely personal post called “Falling: Recovery, Silence and the Church.” Here’s an excerpt:
But the more I thought about it (new Boston mayor Marty Walsh’s openly talking about his recovery during the campaign), the more I felt sad for the church. If an admission of being in recovery can actually help someone in the hardball world of politics, why is it so feared in the very place where redemption should be celebrated? Why aren’t we, people who talk about grace and forgiveness and new life, in the business of teaching people what to do when they fall? Why don’t we acknowledge these things so that we can help people know where to turn when they need help to get back up?
There are mountains of ephemera in the blogosphere, but well-written wisdom, like gold, is where you find it.
(Photo by R.L. Floyd, 2014)
My Top Posts for 2012
In keeping with my annual end of the year tradition here are the top posts from “When I Survey . . .” for 2012:
“Confused? Interpreting Your Congregation’s Numbers” was by far the most popular with nearly 3,000 hits.
Other popular posts from this year were:
- “God with Us”: A sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
- Commandment takes beating in Tampa
- “Anticipation”: A sermon for the First Sunday of Advent
- Under the Green Canopy: Hiking the Appalachian trail in the Berkshires
- The Cross and Violence: A Rumination
Posts from previous years that continue to get visited frequently are:
- Prayer for a Retired Pastor
- Rejoice! Rejoice! A sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent
- “God Gives the Growth” A Retirement Sermon
- Prepare Three Envelopes” A Parable about Pastoral Ministry
- Reflections on the New Century Hymnal
- “The Lord Will Provide” A sermon on Genesis 22
- The Ministry and its Discontents: Pastors in Peril
- Churches with Adjectives
- My Sermon after 9/11: “God is our Refuge and our Strength”
- The Butler Did It: A Passion for Mystery Novels
I am working on a book that I hope will be published this coming year with the tentative title of “Prepare Three Envelopes” (and other ruminations on pastoral ministry). It will collect many of the posts from this blog, and from my former blog “Retired Pastor Ruminates” plus some other previously unpublished pieces of mine. I will keep you posted about it. In the meantime thank you all for you support this year. I hope you will continue to visit here in 2013.
When I Survey . . . 