On Living in the Township of Heaven

Description

Reflections on life in the Parish.

“This book of poems takes the stuff of the ordinary and discloses how the common experiences of life reveal to us that we are living in “the township of heaven.”

Reviews

Dandelions. A deer at the edge of the woods.  Aurora Borealis.  A child protesting the restrains of a car seat.  What have these to do with parish ministry?  Everything, for those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

This book of poems takes the stuff of the ordinary and discloses how the common experiences of life reveal to us that we are living in “the township of heaven.”  They were written while Puckett was serving as a Lutheran parish pastor.  Many of the poems comment, in surprising ways, on moments of daily life with the realities of parish ministry: baptism, stewardship, communion, congregational work days.  If they serve to inspire others to trust their own creative impulses, all the better.”

—Rev. Craig L. Nessan, Dean, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Currents in Theology and Mission

“…through poetry Puckett explores how ministry is ‘life-giving and life-rending all at the same time.”  —Rev. Jeff Lilley, parish pastor, Kansas

“…the author never takes his eye off of the playfulness and humor that permeate this quest for humanness.”  —Jim Babcock, elementary teacher, Kansas

“…refreshing to hear the inner voice of pastoral experience…. Puckett does not avoid the tough realities in the plodding day-to-day life of local places and unsung pastorates.  Here is honesty about the stress and fears alongside the hopes of everyday faith and church life.”  –Rev. Gilson A. C. Waldkoenig, Associate Professor of Church in Society, Director of Town and Country Church Institute, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.

About the Author

Gary B. Puckett is a jack-of-all-trades with a Master of Divinity.  Husband to Kathy, father to Margaret and Nathan, he keeps house, shepherds flocks of aged vehicles and obsolete computers, forges iron, maintains good intentions of recording his music, writes, teaches and preaches as needed, watches for glimpses of the Township of Heaven, and listens constantly for the whistle of any stray steam locomotive that might wander down the BNSF tracks through Milledgeville, Illinois.