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First Evan

Writings by Cole Huffman


Oct 18

Thank You, Eugene Peterson

“For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  (1 Corinthians 4:15) I consider Eugene H. Peterson a father in Christ. I’ve never met him, and will not this side of Heaven. As I write this, he is in hospice care.  Many have contributed to my pastoral formation, but from him I learned to be a literary pastor. That’s not one who writes scholarly or reads widely,... Read More
Posted by Cole Huffman at Oct 18
Preaching Pastoring Books

Aug 23

The Fixer Is Out

In a preaching class where I guest-lectured recently, I was asked what one thing I would say to the younger version of myself about pastoral ministry. It’s hard for me to answer questions like that. I think in tangles on the fly. But if I boiled it down to just one thing, it would be that people are more complicated than I know. There was a time I would hear tales of broken relationships in the church and think: If they just sat down for lunch together, they probably could work it... Read More
Posted by Cole Huffman at Aug 23
Humility Pastoring Musings

Jul 19

Front and Center

In one of his books, Gregory Thornbury says he once told a European audience that evangelicalism is a suicide death cult. We criticize ourselves to death, he meant. It’s an off-the-wall way of putting it, but Thornbury was attempting to emphasize a recurring crisis in evangelical identity. While many in evangelical churches are saying they don’t know who we are anymore, most don’t know who we were to begin with. Evangelicalism, interdenominational in makeup, began as a... Read More
Posted by Cole Huffman at Jul 19
Preaching Church Christ Culture Discipleship