HeyJaredThoughts & Provocations
Thoughts & Provocations is a Substack devoted to the proposition that life in the church and academy should be devoted to careful examination.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 6
- Latest publication
- Sep 15, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest issues
At the Grave’s Edge (opens the original)
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Earlier in life, I wished that the illusion of invincibility had lingered a little longer - at least until I started high school. But a drunk driver insured that wasn’t the case. And with a second accident in the middle of my senior year the illusion completely evaporated.But the passage of time carries us to new places, and the lessons that we think we have learned come back around, making a fresh impression. That time of life has come at last. As with all of us, if you live long enough, you sp
The Heart Turned Toward God (opens the original)
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“…what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.” (Mt 15:18-19)For millennia the human race has been looking for methods to cultivate virtue – those habits of the heart that make for a balanced and moral life. It is not, as you might suspect, an exclusively modern and American endeavor. In fact, it was far more popular millennia ago than it is today.In the 5th
You don't want to be a Bishop (opens the original)
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You don’t want to be a Bishop. I realize that - on the face of it - there are real attractions to it. To some it feels like “the next step” after a period of time in parish ministry. At a distance, it looks like a vantage point from which you might be able to address bigger issues. And because bishops gather to deliberate on matters of national and international significance, it looks like an opportunity to address those issues.But lying beneath the apparent influence associated with the office
Mentoring (opens the original)
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When I began working on a Masters of Divinity, I had no idea what I was doing. Broadly, I thought I was preparing for pastoral ministry, and there was “stuff” as a pastor that you needed to know. And, if pushed, I could have reeled off disciplinary labels for some of which a pastor needed to know - biblical studies, for example. But beyond that I was in unknown territory.My parents took us to church every Sunday. But they had no frame of reference for ordained ministry, and they weren’t theologi
Choosing Growth (opens the original)
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Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were
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