What would you say is the best gift a transitional pastor can give a congregation? Most traditional interim training programs land heavily on the idea that the primary task of a church in transition is dealing with grief. Thus, much…
In this election season, I am partisan to the gospel first and last
It’s always about power, don’t you know? If that hasn’t become obvious to you in the past week, then you suffer from hardening of the categories caused by hyper-partisanship. I was on three calls just Wednesday asking me about how…
‘Yes, and’: A response to stories of pastoral angst in the present moment
How many articles and blog posts have come across your computer screen recently describing the angst of pastoral leaders? It seems nearly every author, blogger, denominational minister, coach, consultant and anyone else who serves alongside pastors and church staff persons…
Church leaders, here’s your new vocabulary word for 2020: ‘Liminal’
Susan Beaumont looks like a prescient genius right now. She wants you to know the actual situation is slightly different. One year ago this month, her latest book was published with the title How to Lead When You Don’t Know…
Four ways to recognize a bully in your church
It was five minutes before worship, and I was greeting people at the sanctuary entrance. The contemporary service was about to begin when a gentleman who usually frequented our traditional service came through the door. After seeing the stage (drums…
The train of conflict is coming to a church near you
As a child, my neighborhood friends and I loved to play on a train track near our house. Foolish, I know, but quite fun and exhilarating. We learned to tell when a train was coming long before it actually appeared….
Confronted by crises, we and our churches need to cultivate a holy curiosity
I believe the current crises in our churches, our communities and our nation will only be transformed into avenues of blessing when we humbly adopt a commitment to cultivate a spirit of holy curiosity.
Do churches re-open their facilities or wait? The stakes couldn’t be higher.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. If churches get this wrong, people will die. People we know and love, people we have never met, folks that count on the church to do the right thing. Yet pressures are mounting to open now.
The church that returns from lockdown will not be the church that left the building
We have learned some things about ourselves during these weeks as physically scattered churches. The poignant question may not be how will WE as the church emerge, but rather first how will I emerge? Or, what part(s) of the body am I now?