The Ministry Collaborative Podcast: Highlights from Our First Year
The Ministry Collaborative program staff (Ryan Bonfiglio, Jennifer Watley Maxell, Mark Ramsey, and Adam Borneman) talk about standing in the face of discord, the messiness of change, and how theology happens everywhere....
hind·er verb create difficulties for (someone or something), resulting in delay or obstruction Peter’s education as a follower of Jesus didn’t end with Jesus’ ascension. The Book of Acts highlights God’s relentless work on opening Peter up to hard challenges. These surprises for Peter largely focused...
Digging a Deeper Well will go on hiatus starting next week for what we think is a terrific reason. Your co-authors are going to be married in nine days and then take a couple weeks to travel afterwards. When we met almost five years ago, initially...
It was a casual aside by Seth Godin, during a recent interview with Debbie Millman. Talking about leadership that is resilient and bold, Godin pointed to the actor Gene Kelly in his iconic performance in Singing in the Rain. He noted that Kelly closes the...
We had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours recently with a gifted group of church board leaders. Among the several questions we discussed with this group, one seemed to register most deeply, judging by people’s widespread sighs, forward leans, and nods of assent. How...
The Ministry Collaborative program staff (Jennifer Watley Maxell, Mark Ramsey, Adam Borneman, and Adam Mixon) talk about the prioritizing humility and compromise, examining a community's personality, and the trap of sorting ourselves. Click here to read Adam Borneman's blog post, "The Front Porch, the Living Room,...
The history of exploration is punctuated by accounts of those who sought to forge a new path, only to find that what they thought was the endpoint turned out to be just a stop along the way. Scaling one of the world’s highest peaks for...
Not long ago, we asked a board member of a Protestant church, “What is it like to serve on your church board?” After a pause, she replied, “It’s pretty much like the times I have to go to the DMV to get my driver’s license...
It’s no wonder that most pastors and church folk would like to never think or have to talk about the political/social divide in our society ever again. It is literally tearing churches – and pastors – apart. Accepting the warring categories in our culture 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