According to our OT text in Deuteronomy 18, God prefers prophets to volcanoes when wishing to speak more clearly and less noisily. But still, do prophets have to be so eccentric, and such nuisances? How can we test the authenticity of prophets? Aren’t they sometimes “before their time”—or “behind times”?   . . . And don’t we sometimes need more??

After an upbringing that stretched from a farm in Kansas to that historic Presbyterian seminary in Princeton, NJ, Rich Stewart’s career in ministry has blessed him with experience in parishes large and small, in city and countryside, in rural town, bedroom burb, and mountain resort. For 24 years he was anchored (by one foot—part-time) as a rehab chaplain at world-acclaimed Craig Hospital in metro Denver. Since June 2005, he’s been trying to learn retirement, testing the patience of his wife Jo. Mercifully for her, he gets out of the house regularly, for things like pulpit supply, presbytery’s Committee on Ministry, and on-call parish response at churches that need some part-time help—most notably at Green Mountain PC, Lakewood. He’s also marketing a book of highlights from his years at Craig Hospital. He and Jo now have two grandchildren, in Southern CA.