Everyone can play a role in motivating the women and men God has called to lead their church. When this occurs, God is glorified, the church is strengthened, ministers are empowered to do what God has sent them to do and a community’s citizens are drawn to a healthy church serious about being the healing and hopeful presence of Christ.
Slamming doors to refugees: What will it take to get our humanity back?
In 2016 the United States welcomed 85,000 refugees; so far in 2018 we have received less than 21,000. And the cap for 2019 will be the lowest cap on admissions since the program began in 1980. The secretary of state says it’s about “prioritizing the safety and well-being of the American people.” It sounds to me like the studies on generosity are still right: we’ve got too much – affluence and/or fear – to be willing to share.
When women become pastors: Walls fall and ceilings shatter
Those who have voiced their worry about women wandering into leadership roles were right. The presence, voices and leadership of women will bring down walls, the false pillars of faith. These walls give the illusion of control, the illusion of comfort and even the illusion of God’s redemptive work.
What does effective, Christ-like leadership look like in today’s ministry climate?
Seminary students and their seminar teacher created a list of eight key characteristics of effective leadership in congregational ministry.
Not instruction, but provocation: listening to the ‘taught’
Across four decades, listening to students (“those who are taught”) has provoked me to action and insight I might otherwise have dodged. When students have moved classes from instruction to provocation, I’ve not only been awakened, I’ve often been reborn.
Under the teaching tree, counting planes and keeping vigil with Brother Raul
The form keeps shifting, but the outcome has remained constant for generations. Those on the bottom of the hierarchy have calamity visited upon body and spirit and household. The trouble – racism, greed, violence – crushes people.
Embracing curiosity: Asking good questions is a crucial index of faith
Surely life is far more interesting and faithful if we explore how this world works and our spiritual place within it, especially the relationship between divine and human agency.
Making a ‘faith bet’: Discerning God’s will includes ‘rolling the dice’
In our journey to know God’s will, after we have prayed, sought appropriate counsel, considered circumstances, studied scripture and used the brains given to us by God, we eventually have to “put our money down” and make a faith bet.
Two key steps for youth ministry in an age of anxiety
Autonomy breeds resiliency in kids and in their individual expressions of Christianity, especially when these kids are rooted in congregations brimming over with institutional warmth and opportunities for non-parental intergenerational relationships.
Florence is a reminder: does your church have a preparation checklist for severe weather?
Churches are often wonderful in terms of mobilizing volunteers after a storm, but Hurricane Florence got me thinking: How can my church be a presence for good in the lead-up to the storm?
For some, that cross you’re wearing may be a negative symbol
For a lot of folks these days, that cross on your necklace might as well be a neon billboard declaring that the sermon being preached to everyone you meet is saying, “We don’t want people like you in the Church.”
Israel and Palestine: historic tensions exacerbated by poorly-informed Christian theology
A popularized theological perspective jumps right past what Jesus said and did and leaps right into the arms of a literalistic version of Revelation that views “end times” as a highly marketable concept for well-meaning Christians. What is being peddled creates broad theological confusion and ultimately wreaks geopolitical havoc.