About Aaron M. G. Zimmerman

Originally from North Carolina, Aaron graduated from Harvard in 1999 (B.A. History and Science). Before entering parish ministry, he taught English in Kazakhstan, wrote case studies at Harvard Business School, and worked in HR at Heinz. He received his M.Div. from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in 2008. After ordination, he served as Assistant Rector and leader of young adult ministries at St. Stephen's Church in Sewickley, PA. He and his family now live in Houston, TX, where Aaron is the Associate Rector for Outreach and Family and Young Adult Ministries at St. Martin's Episcopal Church.

http://zimmermania.blogspot.com/

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Author Archive
    The Pink Prophet: A Lenten Reflection on Control
    Bible / Psychology / Religion / Theology

    The Pink Prophet: A Lenten Reflection on Control

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Feb 28, 2013 • 4 Comments

    Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. 6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay…

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    Brene Brown and the End of Shame (See: Nazarene Carpenter)
    Bible / Identity / Psychology / Relationships

    Brene Brown and the End of Shame (See: Nazarene Carpenter)

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Nov 1, 2012 • 8 Comments

    One of the best things about moving to Houston, Texas, a year ago (other than the Mexican food and Blue Bell ice cream) is that I now live in the same town as Brené Brown. As such, I’ve been able to hear her twice: once as a speaker at the church where I work and just recently at a gathering of clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Many of you have watched her 2010 TEDx talk on vulnerability (which went viral Gangnam style). And she’s been on this here blog here, here, and here.  In May, she gave a…

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    Gordon MacDonald and the Pool of Evil
    Forgiveness / News

    Gordon MacDonald and the Pool of Evil

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 15, 2012 • No Comments

    Gordon’s MacDonald’s thoughts on “Vigorous Repentance”:

    I once thought that repentance simply meant that when you do something bad, you mention it, say that you’re sorry, and move on. But a revisiting of the Bible on this subject has moved me to understand that repentance is, first and foremost, an acknowledgement of that deeper pool of evil that lies resident in every one of us and which is ready to explode at any moment.

    If you know anything about MacDonald, you know that he knows about glory, failure, and grace. I’m thankful for men and women like him who recognize with clear…

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    Gardner Taylor: Preaching to the Alienated Ones
    Church / Interviews

    Gardner Taylor: Preaching to the Alienated Ones

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 7, 2012 • 2 Comments

    When I’m 94, I hope I’m half as wise and cut-to-the-bone honest as the Rev. Dr. Gardner Taylor, known as “the dean of American preaching.” In a 2011 interview on “Preaching When Parched,” Dr. Taylor was asked how one can preach and minister during the “arid” times in life. His answer comes across with the bracing honesty we at Mockingbird try to encourage, the gut-level truth-telling which was a focus of our recent too-hot-to-handle-too-cold-to-hold (Vanilla Ice) NYC conference. (He also echoes some of PZ’s past thoughts on Kerouac and the task of preaching). Listen up, preachers:

    Q: How do you preach from aridity without betraying…

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    Pete Campbell: With Success Comes Sadness
    Identity / TV

    Pete Campbell: With Success Comes Sadness

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 25, 2012 • 5 Comments

    Slate recently interviewed Vincent Kartheiser (aka Pete Campbell on Mad Men). In case we needed any reminders that human beings need love, not love-based-on-achievement, there’s this:

    Slate: [Your character's] a man of ambition, but he seems to get more unhappy the more he achieves. He’s achieved many of his goals—Trudy had the baby, he got a bigger office, he’s dominating Roger—but he seems to get crabbier by the week. Do you understand why he’s so unhappy?

    Kartheiser: With success comes a level of sadness. You think, “I’ll reach this goal, and then I’ll feel a sense of completeness, of wholeness. I’ll feel…

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    Angry Birds, Good Friday
    Addiction / Technology / Theology

    Angry Birds, Good Friday

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 6, 2012 • 7 Comments

    This morning I hit snooze four or five times. And so began a day of making non-optimal self-defeating choices. So often—and I mean All The Time—we do things that we know will cause ourselves pain, suffering, regret, guilt, and unhappiness. And then we do it again. Yet so often, the advice we get is to make better choices. We appeal to our rational minds, our wills. It never works. But that fact doesn’t seem to bother any one. The sermons, advice columns, pep talks, and self-help books just keep coming.

    For those who still believe people are rational and able to…

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    Poetry / Religion

    Testimony – Stephen Dunn

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 5, 2012 • No Comments

    The Lord woke me in the middle of the night,
    and there stood Jesus with a huge tray,
    and the tray was heaped with cookies,
    and He said, Stephen, have a cookie,

    and that’s when I knew for sure the Lord
    is the real deal, the Man of all men,
    because at that very moment
    I was thinking of cookies, Vanilla Wafers

    to be exact, and there were two
    Vanilla Wafers in among the chocolate
    chips and the lemon ices, and one
    had a big S on it, and I knew it was for me,

    and Jesus took it off the tray and put it
    in my mouth, as if He were give me
    communication, or whatever they call it.
    Then He said, Have another,

    and I tell you I thought a long time before I
    refused, because I knew it was a test
    to see if I was a Christian, which means
    a man like Christ, and not a big ole hog.

    Demi Moore’s Deepest Fear
    Celebrity / Gender / Identity / Interviews

    Demi Moore’s Deepest Fear

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Jan 26, 2012 • 2 Comments

    Are you insecure? Hate your body? Fear the sheer unknown-ness of your future? Lay awake wondering if you’ll end up alone?

    Would it help if your father was a famous race-car driver? And if you’d been married to the bassist for one of the biggest bands of the 1980s and were now married to the guitarist for a big indie rock band? What if you turned a career as an actor into a career as a sought-after photographer? And you had three attractive kids. And you were rich and beautiful?

    Not enough? Let’s try another route. What if you were not only…

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    Winners, Losers, Zuccotti Park and Jesus (of Nazareth)
    Bible / Politics / Religion / Theology

    Winners, Losers, Zuccotti Park and Jesus (of Nazareth)

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Dec 9, 2011 • 12 Comments

    Tony Perkins’ recent CNN.com column is a “Who Would Jesus Support?” look at the Occupy movement.  (He’s not the first to this fight.) His title says it all: “Jesus was a free-marketer, not an Occupier.” As the piece has made the obligatory rounds on the Interweb lately, it has elicited the predictable outrage from the left and approval from the right. Perkins’ argument—that Jesus affirmed the free market and “rejected collectivism”—is not new or surprising. Just as it is not surprising that many have come to the opposite view (here for example) that Jesus would align with the Occupiers.  Everybody…

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    Boring Addicts and Portugese Drug Law
    Addiction / News

    Boring Addicts and Portugese Drug Law

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Nov 14, 2011 • 2 Comments

    In Michael Specter’s recent New Yorker piece (Full article only available to subscribers or on the iPad app, sadly. But a great read.), he traces the history of Portugal’s attempts to deal with rampant drug addiction. After a 1974 coup ended an authoritarian rule, Portugal opened up to the world. A side effect was a massive influx in drugs and a rise in drug trafficking. By the 1980s, drug addiction in Portugal exploded. By 1999, 1% of the population was addicted to heroin alone. HIV spread rapidly; eventually, Portugal had the highest rate of drug-related AIDS deaths in the EU.…

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    Jack Kerouac and the Diamondcutter of Mercy
    Literature / Reformation

    Jack Kerouac and the Diamondcutter of Mercy

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Oct 3, 2011 • 5 Comments

    In The Dharma Bums, Ray Smith (Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical character) describes his parting with his dear friend Japhy Ryder:

    The next day I figured to give Japhy some kind of strange little going-away gift and didn’t have much money or any ideas particularly so I took a little piece of paper about as big as a thumbnail and carefully printed on it: MAY YOU USE THE DIAMONDCUTTER OF MERCY and when I said goodbye to him at the pier I handed it to him, and he read it, put it in his pocket, and said nothing.

    Martin Luther said the Gospel was…

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    Conferences

    2011 Mockingbird Conference in Pictures

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 4, 2011 • 5 Comments

    Conferences / Humor

    Tattoo Fail: Human Swagger Collapses Under Human Error

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Mar 25, 2011 • No Comments

    Oh, the irony.
    (Found here, ht JH)

    Speaking of regrets, don’t let missing the 2011 Mockingbird Conference next weekend be one of yours! Register today!

    Conference Preview: Grace for Single Moms
    Children / Church / Conferences / Gender

    Conference Preview: Grace for Single Moms

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Mar 8, 2011 • 1 Comment

    From Andrea Zimmerman, who, with her husband Aaron, will lead one of our breakout sessions on Friday morning at the upcoming 2011 Mockingbird Conference.

    “Am I allowed to come to Christmas services at your church with my boys?”

    An unwed mother with two small children asked me this question a few days before Christmas. Her church did not allow her to participate in services because she had children out of wedlock. Even though she had already visited our church twice, she couldn’t believe that we would actually allow her to participate, much less at a “special” service. She is not alone.…

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    Humor / Religion / TV

    Colbert: "What About The Jesus?"

    by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Feb 3, 2011 • 2 Comments
    The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
    Sean Dorrance Kelly
    www.colbertnation.com
    Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

    Colbert (with Sean Kelly) takes on the superficiality of our culture. Actually a pretty fascinating little interview. Take aways: read John’s Gospel, watch the Super Bowl, and read Moby Dick.