By Bill Wilson Let’s start with a disclaimer. Congregations and restaurants are not in the same business. Thinking like a restaurant can lead to embracing the consumer culture of the day. Catering to expectations has been the death knell of…
What’s on your menu?
By Bill Wilson Let’s start with a disclaimer. Congregations and restaurants are not in the same business. Thinking like a restaurant can lead to embracing the consumer culture of the day. Catering to expectations has been the death knell of…
Absorbing Chaos
Dennis C. Golden, president of Fontbonne University in St. Louis, once recalled a visit years ago with a friend who also was at the helm of a university. During their conversation, Golden’s friend described her role as college president in…
Describe a healthy pastor search process, please
By Bill Wilson The search process for a new pastor is both an exhilarating and a risky time for a congregation. Healthy congregations go at this task from the framework of a spiritual discernment process that is unique to the…
Asking for Help
I still remember the look I got from a fellow church member when I mentioned in conversation that I had been seeing a pastoral counselor. The expression was a strange mixture of disbelief and pity. I don’t regret saying it,…
Thinking inside the box
By Amy Butler The leadership art of “thinking outside the box” sounds progressive and cutting-edge. Everybody is talking these days about thinking outside the box, but the reality of the practice is not all that glamorous. I prefer the leadership…
CBF Task Force Report: A new way to Collaborate
Sharing. Collaborating. Networking. If I were to summarize the CBF Task Force Report to the General Assembly, specifically about the Ministries Council, then those would be some of the buzzwords that keep rising to the surface. The idea is this:…
Reflections on CBF General Assembly
It’s no secret that I’ve been a friendly critic of the apparent lack of clear direction afflicting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in recent years. A challenging column of mine published in another Baptist news journal last year elicited everything from…
Just showing up
I am more convinced than ever that showing up is one of the most important things we can do. As a minister serving a new faith community, I have been faced with many opportunities to be present for a variety…
CBF promotes peer learning
By Jeff Brumley As a CBF-trained minister working at a Southern Baptist church in Hawaii, Eric Hasha says he could be the poster child for ministerial isolation. “I’m literally and figuratively on an island when it comes to moderate Baptist…
Jesus on strategic planning
By Bill Wilson Building a congregation’s life around a clear vision and purpose is an easy thing to believe in. Aligning that purpose with biblical teaching and witness is an agreeable notion. I seldom encounter a leader or leadership group…
Jesus on strategic planning
By Bill Wilson Building a congregation’s life around a clear vision and purpose is an easy thing to believe in. Aligning that purpose with biblical teaching and witness is an agreeable notion. I seldom encounter a leader or leadership group…