A collection of stories from clergywomen reflecting on the wage gap that systematically keeps women from earning as much as men for equal service to the Kingdom. A recent article drew out the wage gap between male clergy and female…
unprofessional christianity IV: promising
In a world enslaved to anxiety and fear and scarcity and wealth and power, a world willing to sacrifice anyone on the altar of it’s security, the most dangerously necessary people are those radically okay with who they are, where…
Unprofessional Christianity, part 3: Dreaming
I still believe folks should encourage us to dream God-sized dreams for our lives, except of course when “God-sized” is simply code for “upper middle class sized,” as I’m not entirely sure it is the divine who has bountifully blessed…
Unprofessional Christianity, part 2: Dying
The stories of Zaevion Dobson, Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, and the birth of Jesus decenter everything we think we know about the meaning of life and Christmas. This season has nothing to do with where you go after you die,…
The 40-year-old seminarian
Steve Carell starred as The 40-Year-Old Virgin. If someone made a movie of my life this year, they could call it The 40-Year-Old Seminarian. After 23 years in public ministry, 17 of them as pastor, and 10 as the lead…
A chance encounter on a train
By Derik Hamby This past May I traveled to a preaching conference in Denver. To save expenses I stayed outside the city and traveled in on light rail each morning and back each evening. The trip lasts about 45 minutes…
Educating healthy ministers outside ‘The Bubble’
By Kate Riney I am a proud product of distance learning. I was homeschooled until my sophomore year of high school, when I entered public school at age 13. Yes, I was that kid. The homeschooler. I heard it all…
Seminaries, spiritual formation and personal story
By Ron Crawford I am indebted to the thoughtful response of Scott Hudgins to my response to Brett Younger’s original article about seminary education. I will not review these two fine offerings but will extend the conversation. A key point…
There is nothing wrong with seminaries that a disruptive strategy couldn’t fix
By George Bullard In recent times we have witnessed a dialogue around the role and function of seminaries. This dialogue has been generated primarily by people involved in seminaries, divinity schools and other forms of higher education. Thus, their perspective….