Greg Funderburk’s first book followed the survivors of the Great Storm that killed 8,000 people in Galveston, Texas, in 1900. His second book, released this month, is a devotional born from the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 3 million…
The power of an encouraging word
One doesn’t typically reach my age without the onset of one or more health issues that must be confronted. So, in this 75th year of my life, I have had lower back surgery to help ease the pain in my hips…
Barna advice to pastors: Talk honestly about emotions and relationships
The pastoral skills and mental health of clergy were pushed to the limits in 2020, and the first few weeks of 2021 may be doing much of the same. Recent research shows that leading congregations through the traumatic events like…
Are you suffering from Pastor Separation Syndrome?
Julie Schaaf said she immediately identified with the term “pastor separation syndrome” when she first heard it recently. The concept refers to the loneliness, frustration and grief some clergy have endured after months of pandemic-induced physical separation from their congregations….
We need to talk about dying
We were riding in a limousine to the graveside. Most of the people in the car were family so — except for the masks — the conversation was comfortable and familiar. Then the funeral director said: “See those smokestacks. That’s…
New book explores pain of preaching after a suicide in the congregation
In January 2009, I sat down at my desk to think about the upcoming season of Lent. I was the pastor at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. I had been there for just over two years but was the…
‘You can’t get a Ph.D. in caring’: COVID-19 calls for believer-priests | #intimeslikethese
With all this grief, on a societal level perhaps not seen since 9/11 or the stock market crash of 1929, we pastors and other church staff sure could use more ministers. For Baptists, this shouldn’t be a novel idea.
Why neither seminary nor pastoral experience prepares ministers for (their own) grief
“I was equipped to function in the midst of crisis and to be a non-anxious presence, but nothing prepares you or equips you for the grief over someone who is dear to you.”
Hear our prayer, O Congress: A neo-establishmentarianism?
Events surrounding the dismissal and rehiring of “Father Pat” are more than a mere legislative kerfuffle. They provide important contemporary lessons in the enduring dynamics of church-state relations — old tensions, new twists.