The Ministry Collaborative Podcast: Highlights from Our First Year
In today’s special “Ash Wednesday” edition of the weekly devotional, I am inviting you to join me in a Lenten Experiment that will nourish your soul and delight your pallet. Before I share it with you, let me give you a bit of background on...
One of life’s most challenging questions is, “Why?” Barbara asked it on September 11, 2001, when she overslept and was late to work. The plane that crashed into the World Trade Center killed everyone who was in her office that morning. Barbara was only alive...
If only the Church was like Alcoholics Anonymous… it would be more like Jesus wants it to be! I mean it! There is something refreshingly honest about an AA group. Saying the 4 words… “I am an alcoholic,” takes guts…it requires honesty with oneself. To...
What are the characteristics of a truly great person? If we follow social media trends, we could think that the truly great people are the big-time athletes or entertainers like Beyoncé, Adele, LeBron, or The Boss, (Bruce Springsteen.) But, the Bible teaches us that truly...
Words are like children…always in motion…never sitting still for very long…constantly changing. A case in point. In 1675, nine years after the terrible fire in London, England that destroyed much of the city, Sir Christopher Wren laid the cornerstone on the most ambitious work of...
Macedonian Ministry has changed my life. The group of faith leaders in our cohort have become my closest friends. We worship together, encourage each other, challenge each other, mourn and celebrate with each other. Most of all, we *hear* each other. ...
When our Macedonian Ministry staff brainstormed “truth” as a topic of our February column for 2017 it was about two months before the Oxford dictionary declared that the “Word of the Year” for 2016 was post-truth. The Oxford dictionary combs through data bases of word...
When has a door closed in your life? Every one of us has experienced closed doors …when a loved one dies and a chapter of our lives ended; when a job or a relationship did not work out as we hoped; or when we hoped...
My adventure with Serious Ju Ju skateboard ministry had evolved from spectator, to advocate, to volunteer. I guess at some point I went “all in.” Read more about Tom Esch's adventure....
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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