Posts by Ryan Panzer
Occupation vs. Vocation?
Our culture is more focused than ever before on jobs and occupations. There’s a growing sense that our happiness, even our self-worth, depends on finding a purposeful, impactful, and fulfilling…
Read MoreConversation Sunday Resources: A Waiting Community
Watch the Sermon from Conversation Sunday Questions for Discussion Do you think waiting feels difficult? Why or why not? What are some of the ways that our surrounding culture tries…
Read MoreWhat Jim Carrey and The Grinch Taught Me About Advent
A Tale of Two Grinch Productions CBS broadcast the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” TV special in December 1966. It’s a heartfelt holiday special with a sentimental message about…
Read MoreChurch Community: Waiting vs. Doing
A church community is so radically different from everything in our culture, because as it turns out, churches are more about waiting than they are about doing.
In Advent, we remember the promises God speaks to us. We wait for those promises to be fulfilled. And as we wait, we welcome. We forgive. And we serve.
Radical Hospitality: How is a gym like a church?
On our first Conversation Sunday, we looked at the question: “What is Radical Hospitality?” Ryan Panzer walks us through one way we can think about what radical hospitality is (and isn’t) by thinking about an experience at a local gym.
Read MoreWhy Radical Hospitality Matters in a Lutheran Church
In a culture that is so quick to judge between right and wrong, where the practice of hospitality is itself an attempt to get people to be more like us, radical hospitality is difficult work.
Read MoreA “Come-to-Jesus” Conversation
Throughout Lent at Good Shepherd, we remember that we are created for community. In times of face-to-face and virtual togetherness, we are created for connection with one another. But what…
Read MoreAdvent Reflection | Thursday, December 10
Today’s A Weary World Rejoices story comes from Ryan Panzer: In 2010, the Wisconsin Badgers won the Big Ten Championship and earned a trip to the Rose Bowl. As a member…
Read MoreA Digital Reformation
Did you catch today’s Gospel reading (John 8:31-36)? It was short. Just four verses. Barely enough characters to fill up two “Tweets” on Twitter. Allow me to read it again.…
Read MoreWhat’s allowed during a social distancing version of Holy Week
Normalcy Disrupted Let’s allow ourselves plenty of space to lament the disruption of normalcy. Let’s grant ourselves permission to grieve the experiences we have lost, the time with friends and…
Read MoreReset
What am I Forgetting? When the sun is shining and the roads are cleared of snow and salt, I try as best as I can to ride my bicycle to…
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