The Ministry Collaborative Podcast: Highlights from Our First Year
James Baldwin once wrote, “It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within. And yet, the terror within is far truer and far more powerful than any of...
Every night, either my wife Jessica or I take my three-year-old daughter through the infinitely long and sometimes excruciating process of picking out pajamas, putting on pajamas (yes, these are two separate processes), brushing teeth, saying prayers, reading a few books, and going to sleep. While...
The controversy that has erupted over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem was initiated by a protest focused on race and racism, but has emerged as a broader controversy revolving around allegiances – to whom or what our allegiances are directed, which objects of...
Moneyball is one of my favorite films. Based on the book by Michael Lewis, it tells the remarkable true story of how the small-market 2002 Oakland A’s, under the leadership of famed General Manager, Billy Beane, rewrote the books on how to be a successful...
Acts 15 includes one of the most pivotal scenes of the New testament and the early church. Often referred to as “The Jerusalem Council,” a group of elders, apostles, and early church leaders, including Paul, Barnabas, James, and Peter convene and debate whether Gentiles should...
Jessica and I are expecting our second child to arrive in a couple of months. As you might imagine, we’re incredibly excited. Excited, because this pregnancy was totally unexpected, given that we endured infertility for five years before the birth of our first daughter, Maggie....
I’ve seen the quote below making the rounds on the internet this Pentecost season and it’s quite striking. It’s excerpted from a presentation that Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Ignatius of Latakia (port city in Syria, historically known as Laodicea) delivered before the World Council of Churches...
I’ve written in a previous post about what it means to pray the “Psalms of Vengeance.” There I drew upon pastor, theologian, and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who reminds us that when we pray those Psalms calling on God to crush enemies, break the arm of...
This week I’m on a retreat with some of the best friends I’ve ever had. These brothers from Birmingham have given me a sense of what Jesus meant when he redefined family as those who do the will of the father, a family that exhibits...
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I was the Facilitator for the first New York City cohort, and at the time, I was working in theological education on Christian leadership formation, so it seemed like a natural fit. What I discovered, though, was something quite different from my “day job.” While the content and topics of the curriculum was a crucial part of our gatherings, it was the community of mutual care and support that made the content relevant, not the other way around. And second, having three years of strong bonding created an extraordinarily resilient community that, in turn, was able to build up resilience in our leaders. I think every member of my cohort went through significant seasons of both joy and heartache, professionally and vocationally, during our time. And the cohort, in turn, lived out the exhortation of Romans 12:15, “rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep,” with a depth and integrity that I have rarely experienced, and often doing both in the same gathering. It was a privilege and a blessing to me and my own faith and ministry to be their facilitator, and I am eternally grateful to the Ministry Collaborative for calling me to that work!”
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was unique to my particular situation. It was needed, appreciated and healing. It was affirming. Most valuable was the unspoken understanding of what we all were facing in our ministry context. There was a sense that we could finish each other’s sentences. Solidarity and empathy.”
Graduation Date:
May 23, 2021
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was unique to my particular situation. It was needed, appreciated and healing. It was affirming. Most valuable was the unspoken understanding of what we all were facing in our ministry context. There was a sense that we could finish each other’s sentences. Solidarity and empathy.”
Graduation Date:
May 23, 2021
“I truly looked forward to this every week. The discussion topics, activities, and small group conversations were all very rich and meaningful. This experience gave me space to reflect on what’s happening right now in my congregation and community. It helped me to think about what might be next in my own ministry. It offered some very concrete ways I might work on equipping leaders in my congregation. I really enjoyed meeting colleagues from different places, denominations, and contexts–and learning from their experiences and reflections. I also appreciated hearing further conversation and reinforcement in the podcasts.”
Graduation Date:
July 14, 2021
“The experience was, in one word, enriching. It was timely as well. I was at a critical point in my own ministry and this literally breathed life back into me. The time went by so fast that I didn’t even realize two months had passed. To be able to share that type of camaraderie with other preachers, and realize that my struggles are not isolated, was liberating.”
Graduation Date:
March 18, 2021
“It was great to find confirmation and affirmation of my ministry through the voices of other pastors. I particularly enjoyed the focused time on talking about each of us as individuals and pastors, and not so much on what our churches look like.”
Graduation Date:
January 31st, 2020