Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 22 2020
Our first Christmas in New Zealand, 2007, our son Mike came to visit and we had a great time travelling to Queenstown and exploring gorgeous Lake Wakatipu. Our second Christmas, 2008, I was really freaked out about having a Christmas with no family members, so I frantically tried to plan something fun. We rented a house in Te Anau for a week that Christmas, and we really did have a good time exploring the town and the shore of Lake Te Anau on the bicycles provided at the house. It took until our third Christmas here for me to start asking...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Thursday December 17 2020
I am shopping for groceries in mid December in Dunedin, New Zealand, where I have lived for a few months. As I come out of the supermarket, I see a small stand where Christmas trees are being sold, and a man is walking away dragging a Christmas tree. He is barefoot.
I am bemused by seeing a barefoot Christmas tree shopper. I think about what he is feeling with his feet – the solidity of the asphalt, bits of gravel, maybe a random leaf. He connected to the earth in a way that I am not. And he is dragging a Christmas...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Thursday December 10 2020
We left the United States on the summer solstice in 2007 and arrived in New Zealand in the dead of winter. I had a five year contract as a lecturer at the University of Otago in Dunedin, renowned in New Zealand for being cold. (We ended up staying ten years, and returned to Dunedin two months ago to wait for a covid vaccine here.) The outdoor temperatures in Dunedin aren’t much different than Seattle, actually a tiny bit warmer on average in winter, but many houses are drafty.
“Drafty” is an understatement. The house we rented for the first six months was...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Wednesday December 2 2020
Lament is a big part of my prayers these days. In my lifetime, I have never experienced so much sadness, grief and pain when I look around at our world. Maybe if I had lived in Europe during World War 2 or Rwanda during the genocide in 1994, I might have had this much to lament. But this pain is unprecedented for me, and lament prayers come easily these days.
My American friends and family members have just celebrated Thanksgiving, and I know they spent some time thinking about what they are thankful for. We have entered Advent, a season of looking...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Sunday August 9 2020
(Originally published inHorizons: The Magazine of Presbyterian Women. May/June 2019, 11-14.Lynne Baab • Sunday August 9 2020
(Originally published in Presbyterians Today, July/August 2019, 8.)Lynne Baab • Sunday August 9 2020
Originally published in Tui Motu InterIslands, Independent Catholic Magazine, New Zealand, September 2017, 26, 27.
Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is a teacher and writer. She has written numerous books and Bible study guides. Lynne lives in Seattle, and you can contact her at LMBaab [at] aol [dot] com. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her book on midlife, A Renewed Spirituality: Finding Fresh Paths at Midlife, for kindle. Her 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her best-selling book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest. You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
Lynne was interviewed recently for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
A few years ago, Lynne spoke at a conference for preachers and others in ministry on "Spiritual Practices for Preachers" (recorded as a video on YouTube). The talk is relevant to anyone in ministry and focuses on how to draw near to God simply as a child of God as well as engaging in spiritual practices for the sake of ministry.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
Here's a sermony by Lynne on Reverent Submission, where she tries to reclaim the word "submission," which has a bad rap in our time.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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