Executive Director Mark Ramsey speaks with Heather Brown and the Rev. Barrett Payne (James Island Presbyterian Church, South Carolina) about the centrality of forgiveness to Christian identity, the problem with a "checkbox" approach to faith, and what personal and communal crises reveal about the witness...
“Mystery is an embarrassment to the modern mind.” — Flannery O’Connor “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith lives in the quiet certainties of the heart. It is the ever-recurring assurance that reality does not ultimately mock our...
The movie Amadeus features a memorable scene in which Emperor Joseph II approaches Mozart after the premiere of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail and awkwardly suggests that Mozart uses “too many notes.” A perplexed Mozart responds, “There are just as many notes as...
In late March, people packed into the entry hall of a Macy’s Department Store in downtown Philadelphia. The store was closing, but the crowd had not come for the close-out sales. They were there for one last day (at least for now) with the famed...
Over the past several years we have encouraged church boards to ‘dig deeper wells’ of meaning and mutual understanding that can nurture their leadership in the midst of complexity and ambiguity. And then this week, author Seth Godin gave some nicely related advice: “Dig your...
As we approach Holy Week, we share a hymn by James Montgomery (1771-1854), who was born in Scotland to Irish parents. When he was just five years old, James’ parents left him in care of a Moravian community in Ireland, while they answered a call...
The church is not asked to invent an identity; it is to live the life of Jesus Christ in the world. - Jurgen Moltmann How can you just leave me standing Alone in a world that's so cold? - Prince, When Doves Cry A recent feature article about Prince included the...
We received the following question from a colleague two weeks ago: Does this data point to a period of the church reintroducing ourselves to the public … or a period of being in the wilderness, while relearning why we are Christian before we reintroduce ourselves? Our colleague...
For Marty, the only real swear word was tribalism — watching out for my interest, my family, my town, my country, my tribe — at the expense of others…. Everyone, and he meant everyone, deserved a seat at the table of public discussion as long...
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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