By Mary Miller About a year ago I resigned the pastorate of a church where I had served for 13 years. As I prepared to resign, I faced the usual list of not-so-pleasant tasks: compose a resignation letter, figure out…
Sharpen the axe
Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” This approach to preparation was popularized by Stephen Covey in his book The 7…
You can’t please everyone
By Bill Wilson I recently spent a memorable and meaningful few days with a group of music ministers. Throughout our times of worship, breakouts and social interaction, I had many significant conversations with these men and women about their life…
Let’s play: morph your church into a museum
The long-range goal of many congregations is to turn their church into a museum. It is not intentional. It is unintentional. It is just that actions taken year after year migrates them away from thriving as a missional movement to…
On-the-job training
By Amy Butler Every minister knows there could be massive tomes written on the topic, “Things I Never Learned in Seminary.” This is not because seminary faculties try to trick us by leaving some of the essentials out of the…
On-the-job training
By Amy Butler Every minister knows there could be massive tomes written on the topic, “Things I Never Learned in Seminary.” This is not because seminary faculties try to trick us by leaving some of the essentials out of the…
Thinking inside the boxes
By Bob Burroughs Every church has multiple boxes. There is the Worship Box. This box is very large, for it must accommodate a wide variety of people. The Worship Box often has “dividers” that are called such names as “Traditional,”…
A tale of two Chucks
What a couple of agnostics taught me about congregational business. I have two friends who are particularly dear to me, both named Chuck. I first met The Chucks, as I call them, a few years ago in a writers’ group…
Absolutely there is life after burnout for pastors
Would you be willing to tell your story of Christian ministry after burnout as a pastor or staff minister? Recently I wrote a post entitled Is There Life After Burnout for Pastors? According to the number of hits this story…