By Mark Tidsworth “The ordained person can then come to realize that his or her first vocation is to be a human being,” observe Donald Hands and Wayne Fehr in Spiritual Wholeness for Clergy. By now, we all know living…
Staff your congregation with 22-44 ministry mobilizers
During uncertain economic times how do congregations provide staff leadership that is essential for forward progress? How do congregations add a staff person? How do congregations replace a staff person? How do congregations lower staff costs in response to what…
A woman of valor
By Wes Spears The latest book to cause a stir in the often echo chamber-like Christian blogosphere is Rachel Held Evans’ A Year of Biblical Womanhood. In it, Evans spends a year trying to live up to the supposed imperatives…
The edgy Christian media startup you need to check out
More and more, Christian media outfits try to create their own social media platforms to get noticed. However, a new edgy social media startup, “Sogo” is taking a different route on social media to get their message out. Sogo describes…
The Palestinian problem
The Palestinian problem
By Leroy Seat Some things never seem to end. This month there has, once again, been serious military action between Palestinians and Israelis. There has been intermittent fighting between Palestine and modern Israel since November 1947. Sixty-five years ago yesterday,…
Reaching your New Year’s goals
My husband and I sat down a few days before Thanksgiving to catch up with each other after putting the kids to bed. We had flown from August to December and sat looking back at the busy season of school…
Thankful once a year
By Amy Butler When Thanksgiving and Advent are back-to-back, per usual, there’s hardly time to clear the turkey off the table to make room for the Advent wreath before the first candle should be lit. Most years we scramble back…
They lost me when they said this was not a letter about AIDS
Back in the 1980s when the world was still trying to figure out how to get a handle on the pandemic of AIDS, I came home from work one day and had a letter from the American Red Cross. I…
Keeping watch
By Molly T. Marshall I recently heard a child grumble: “Do we really have to celebrate Jesus’ birth every year? Isn’t once enough?” Some of us may echo this sentiment more than we dare to say publicly, especially as we…
Why am I so tired?
I’ve spent the last three months moving at what feels like a break-necking pace. From the demands of being a bi-vocational pastor to juggling calendars, spending four weekends attending weddings, buying my first home, moving, preaching, leading two weekend retreats,…
Tables and barns
By Bill Wilson In an excellent sermon, New York City pastor Alan Sherouse suggested that a most appropriate stewardship metaphor for a New Testament church is that of a table. He specifically referred to the round tables that his church…