CRESTLINE — Bob Weaver hopes his journey can be a learning tool for others.
To that end, the pastor at the Church of the Nazarene in Crestline, has written a 50-day spiritual devotional book, “A Word from the Weaver.” The work was published on Jan. 10. It is a collection of 50 daily devotionals that each include a story, many of which come from Weaver’s personal life, as well as a morning prayer, a goal for the day, a check-in for later in the day, and an evening prayer.
Weaver has been a pastor for four decades, but has been a member of the Crawford and Knox counties’ communities for even longer. Before becoming a pastor, he graduated from Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and then served on the university’s board for eight years.
His first pastorate was a church in Martinsburg before he went to the Church of Nazarene.
“A Word from the Weaver” does not have one sole, overarching theme, but is rather a compilation of a number of different ideas and thoughts to consider each day.
“A lot of people enjoy a kind of a different theme daily because we go through so many different aspects of our life and there are a lot of new challenges each day,” Weaver said. “There is no certain, ongoing theme other than just to help motivate us on that particular day and hopefully the idea will resonate with us and be something to give us direction or comfort, encouragement.”
These themes serve to prompt readers to engage in meditation, reflection, and prayer, and to encourage them to be intentional in their daily thoughts and actions.
“We kind of wait and make decisions in the heat of the emotional moment, instead of pre-determining our day beforehand, and so that’s the purpose of the devotional, and kind of helping us set our course and to give us a purpose throughout the day,” Weaver said.
Weaver said he was inspired to write this book largely in part due to the positive feedback he has received from others when he shares stories from his life. He described this project as an “extension” of the responsibilities he has as a pastor to write sermons, in the sense that the book will help readers apply lessons from his real, personal stories to their own lives in their pursuit of developing a closer relationship with God.
While Weaver plans to write another devotional book in the future, he is currently in the process of writing and publishing two other books.
“A Long Line of Messed Up Fathers and Sons” is set to be released at the end of May, which will explore the father-son connections through five generations, spanning 120 years.
The other, titled “A Moment in Time,” will be a science-fiction novel exploring the relationship between science and spirituality, and will most likely be released in the fall.
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