To all you pastors, lay leaders, volunteers, and congregation members who are rapidly adjusting, adapting, and trying new things, some of which are going well and others which aren’t going well at all, don’t forget… God is rejoicing over you! In the midst of an unprecedented Holy...
We’ve been in awe over the last couple of weeks witnessing the extraordinary resilience, creativity, and faithfulness of pastors and lay leaders all across the U.S. and the world. It’s amazing to see how quickly we can interpret the circumstances and adapt when necessary. It...
Last week in Atlanta, we convened about two dozen pastors, lay leaders, and other church leaders from around the country to talk about the pressing challenges of ministry economics with a focus on property, space, and buildings. Now if that doesn’t get you amped up...
One of the traps we see ministries falling into revolves around this set of assumptions: We have the youth ministry lane, the worship lane, the adult education lane, the missions lane, the communications lane, and so on. And then an individual, group, or committee is...
These two charts (among many others!) have been very helpful to me for understanding why so many ministries struggle with collaboration even while rightly naming it as a priority. Simply put, we tend to talk a lot about collaboration without describing what we actually mean by...
What do people in your community care about? What are their values? What are their aspirations? What are their hopes? What are their goals? What are their needs? What are their interests? What are their challenges? Where do they experience joy? Where do they experience belonging? Where do they find deep community? How do they experience...
Because, contrary to all evidence, we treat disruption as the exception rather than the rule. While life experience overwhelmingly indicates that attaining perfect stasis and equilibrium is a myth, we continue – often unconsciously – to relentlessly pursue such conditions. On the other hand, we know...
Have you seen this diagram? It may look complicated at first glance, but it’s actually rather simple, and understanding it can be enormously helpful to anyone leading an organization, including ministry leaders. I first encountered this diagram in a book called, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, by...
This is an important question for congregations to ask, and it can be framed in several different ways: …. as a question about the congregation’s ultimate purpose or aim. … as a question about the nature of assembling as community of faith and what that means. … as...
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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