Pastors’ families are rated on appearance, behavior, personal relationship choices, report cards, salvation and sports performance. There are scorecards in every pew. So look alive, family! It’s Sunday and it’s game time.
Calling a different kind of pastor
Forbes Magazine shared 5 Hiring Trends to Watch last week which are especially helpful when translated to hiring trends for pastors. As I work with congregations seeking new pastoral leadership, it often feels like we are looking for pastors who fulfill dated…
Four guidelines for pastors of the declining church
Uncategorized 3 Comments I’ve been interested in the work and writings of Margaret Wheatley for many years now. I just read her book, with Deborah Frieze, Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey Into Communities Daring to Live the Future…
Pastors need Lent, too
Just as we had finished imposing ashes on the foreheads of worshipers, my friend and fellow pastor David Bennett turned to me and said, “Alan, remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, David…
Politics in the pulpit: One pastor’s approach
Election years can be volatile, unpredictable, and filled with heated political rhetoric. And these days, it is not unusual for prominent pastors and local clergy to join the fray of bombastic oratory. While I do not think pastors should…
I Preached With a Screen So You Don’t Have To
I Preached With a Screen So You Don’t Have To I hate being scared of things for the wrong reasons, but this was one of those times. I don’t normally use a screen when I preach. In fact, even though…
On failure and ministry
I do not understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us. – Anne Lamott I am a junky for any and all personality type assessments…
unprofessional christianity VI: believing
When I stopped hiding, defending, answering, and protecting myself from followers of this God using God’s name to justify things they were already going to do regardless of the answers I stammered about the Bible’s place in American society, I…
Beginner’s mind
Tomorrow morning I’m going to slip a clerical robe over my shoulders and drape a green liturgical stole around my neck. I will line up behind the choir, along with the other pastors and liturgists, process up an impossibly long…