Still Mountain Coaching and Spiritual Direction

I'm excited to co-lead this contemplative backpacking trip on the Hoh River Trail with friends from this September. If you read my essay collection, "A Broad Place," this is the area I wrote about in the essay on silence. Join us for the info session on May 12!

Are you clear on your true purpose, or do distractions keep pulling you away? Learn what Thomas Merton says we can learn about inner simplicity from the example of a hawk in my latest essay: https://open.substack.com/pub/stillmountain/p/the-hawk-knows-his-business?r=2mlpm5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

A month ago, I ran a 55k trail race in Western Colorado. Today, I wrote about that experience and how it illustrates the power the people around us have to shape our lives. Read more at https://stillmountain.substack.com/p/who-sets-your-pace

A new year brings new opportunities. What will you attempt in 2025?

Whether you're launching out on a new venture, discerning between potential paths to follow, or wondering how to overcome obstacles in your way, coaching can help. Send me a message to schedule a session today and start the new year off well.

What would make 2024 a year when you feel more fully alive? This isn't a selfish question to ask. In fact, the things that make you feel fully alive turn into your most unique and valuable contributions to the world around you. As Howard Thurman wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Coaching can help you identify what does (and does not) give you life and take active steps to change and grow. If you'd like to take that journey in the new year, I'm accepting new coaching clients. Send me a message to start the conversation.

Today I'm celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of my ordination. Every year on this date I read the charge which my mentor BJ Woodworth gave me at my ordination service. In it, he quotes a mentor of his who said, "Ministry is what happens in the wake of the pursuit of God."

Just as a boat creates a wake while moving forward through water, our pursuit of God can leave ripple effects behind us that affect and transform others. I need this reminder often. It's too easy to forget that ministry is not about my skills or experience, but about seeking God and God's will in the world.

In the words of Lesslie Newbigin, "The minister’s leadership of the congregation in its mission to the world will be first and foremost in the area of his or her own discipleship, in that life of prayer and daily consecration which remains hidden from the world but which is the place where the essential battles are either won or lost.”

I can't claim to be exemplary in such discipleship in any way, but the pursuit of God is what led me to plant and copastor a church in Pittsburgh for eight years. And it's what's sustained me in ministry in the seven years since I came to Colorado to serve First Presbyterian Church of Berthoud. Most recently, it's led me to be trained in coaching and spiritual direction.

By God's grace, I've been bi-vocational for 10 of these 15 years, complementing my pastoral ministry by working as a barista at a cafe, a program coordinator at a seminary, and now a coach and spiritual director. I've also served at the Presbytery level, including six years on the Council of the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks and one year as the Moderator of the presbytery.

There have been moments of joy and times when I've wanted to quit, but I'm still here. Thank you to everyone who has walked alongside me on this journey, especially my family and my friends among colleagues in ministry. Let's keep making a wake.