Jim+Sherman

Jim Sherman "PSR!, Absolutely the worst place they could have picked." So said my Aunt Lillian when informed we were on our way to Berkeley for seminary. How wrong she was. It was a perfect fit. I was to find the pastorate as a journey of the mind and spirit, and PSR gave the radical boost I craved. Stephen Covey says: "Begin with the end in view." For me, that means what I am working on right now, in dialogue with several active clergy, on the shape of the faith in the face of a Global Mind Change, brought on in part by a Quantum revolution. My thesis is that we are smack in the middle of The Second Coming. (Though there may have been others as well.) I say that out of a conviction that perhaps the most dynamic "gift" of the original revelation, the real sparkplug of the first two centuries of the "church" was a totally new vision of what it means to be a human self. That is very much what is happening right now. It may be some time before we fully realize the quantum promise of what it means to be "the center of the cosmos," but it will happen. It is happening. SOME HIGHLIGHTS and formative events: - The birth of two additional daughters, along with awareness that my wife, Mary, was not too excited about the prospect of being married to the church. - Three exchange students, (over the years) and one foster child. Our first, from Germany, said that when she learned she would be going to the home of a pastor she was "very very sad, but when I arrive in Michigan I am astonished, and learn that ' life can be beautiful.'." - in 1962, after serving as an associate in Michigan, we move back to Fairfax, California, near SFTS, where I got to know and love Prof James Muilenburg, along with some wonderful people in San Anselmo. It was Vatican II time, The march to Selma, and a time for dreams of Christain unity. - After a move to Michigan, and a confrontation with Continuing Congregationalists and the John Birch society, I was afforded an opportunity to teach psychology at a local community college. It was great fun. - Next, Verne Henderson engineered a call for me to Denver (Aurora) to start a new church sponsored by an eccumenical ministries committee, a "perfect church", with no building, and no congregation. Mountain View Community Church stll exists under the same auspices. - While in Denver I had a hand (very slight) in formation of The Gestalt Institute of Denver. - Only after I arrived did Verne acknowledge that 90% plus, of new church pastors burn out. I was not one of the 10% who beat the odds, so I was able to enjoy seven years in real estate, mortgage sales, and apartment ownership, along with my share of whiimpering. - During this time, I was privileged to associate with some fine leaders, such as Clyde Reid, from whom I learned the art of Bio-energetics, and Transpersonal psychotherapy, all of which began to warp and shift my recieved worldview, which was for more positivist and reductionist than I had imagined. - 1981 During my last ten years in active ministry I was privileged to be able to revive a moribund parish in western Colorado, build an educational unit, and become very involved with Fr. Thomas Keating, Contemplative Outreach and the monastery at Snowmass. - Retirement to Upper Michigan has been a great blessing, providing time for much study, writing, and family gathering.