March 2016 – caminowalk2016

Easter Sunday

This image of our youngest’s jump into Crater Lake seems like a fitting one for Easter — a day when freedom and joy came to humanity! Holy Week is one of my favorite weeks all year long. With nightly services from contemplative to interactive, around table fellowship and in silence, culminating with Easter Sunday the…

57

On Tuesday, March 22nd, I’ll turn 57. I do not know if 57 ought to “feel” a certain way, but do know it doesn’t feel “old.” In January while reading a story in which a man was described as being 53, I distinctly remember thinking – “Wow, that’s old,” – only then to think, “Shimer—you…

Prepare the Way

Part of the journey of this year is preparation — not only the actual preparation of buying supplies, coordinating events and speakers, and planning the budget– but more so, and perhaps in a larger sense, the preparation is of the heart, of my own heart, and of the heart of the congregation as I am…

The Camino Year (republished from 9/2015)

Beginning in August 2014, the Church Council worked with me on applying for a National Clergy Renewal Grant from the Lily Endowment. I was stunned and overjoyed to learn in August 2015 that we are to be the recipient of one of the grants. The question I answered for the grant proposal was what would…

I Am With You

Whatever this year may bring us, I have this undergirding confidence in the character, purpose and goodness of God. One event that strengthened this for me, was one that took place on a hot June night in 1995. The phone call came after midnight into the dark dorm room on the campus of Willamette University…

Let Me Work

On Tuesday evenings a couple times a month a small group and I meet together as I am teaching them the process of learning and telling stories. The weekly assignment is to tell someone the story, or one of the stories, we have learned over the time we have been together. Attendance varies but basically…