Directions of a Pastoral Lifetime

I had been asked to do a Bible study when I began my first church out of seminary. I agreed, so long as I could do it my way. In the fourth year of my work at Hilltop Christian Church in Mantua, Ohio, I chose to do the Song of Solomon (known in many circles as the Song of Songs). I was guided in the development in part by the then-recent anchor Bible commentary by Marvin Pope. The study influenced me greatly. In the next decade or so, I indulged a variety of works on the Song of Songs, largely but not exclusively in the Christian mystical tradition. In 1997, I found a way to work on a devotional development from the Song of Songs, resulting in a work I found satisfying. From those two major efforts, a few minor ones arose. I have collected here the ways in which the Song of Songs has woven into my work as a pastor.