Editor’s note: Faith & Leadership offers sermons that shed light on issues of Christian leadership. A version of this sermon was preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on Sept. 13, 2015. Genesis 11:1-9; John 16:7-15 I’m going to start with…
Leadership is overrated
Leadership is overrated. There, I’ve said it… Recently in a meeting of church and educational professionals I voiced this bias and received a less than enthusiastic response. Most of the persons attending the meeting had some investment in the leadership…
TMI – the limits of vulnerability
Who’s blessing whom?
What pastors value in lay leaders
At a recent staff meeting, a minister assigned to lead our closing segment, which I routinely call “Prayers for the Church,” gave us all a twist. She asked each minister to think of one lay leader in the congregation who…
Coping with opposition
While living in Louisville, Kentucky (while attending seminary many more years ago than I would like to admit) I was briefly employed as a youth minister for a 150-year-old congregation located downtown. Situated in what had been a very prosperous…
3 Leadership lessons from Mark Driscoll
Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll announced he resigned as the senior pastor of 13,000 person Mars Hill Church. This announcement comes after months of a leave of absence and years of controversy. Driscoll’s rise to fame in the Christian world has…
The case for the 45 credit seminary degree
The Atlantic ran a disturbing article on the state of middle class clergy carrying a seminary degree: high debt, low wages, vanishing churches, and part-time pastor positions. The piece profiles Justin Barringer, a recent seminary grad who like many before him…
Beware of the backfire effect
“Daddy long-leg spiders are one of the most poisonous spiders but their fangs are too short to bite humans.” “All vaccines are deadly to all children.” You may heard those statements, but those statements are not true. Despite facts that disprove popular myths, some folks…