Forty years ago, one of us (we’ll leave it to you to identify her) taught juggling in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. From that experience comes the following counterintuitive lesson: juggling isn't a catching skill, it's a throwing skill. When beginners pick up juggling balls, they...
In a story often cited by Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass once addressed an antislavery meeting at the very moment when the abolitionist movement had come under unusual strain. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had emboldened slave catchers, returned many...
We promise that we won’t mimic a family member who takes a memorable trip and then insists on spending 2+ hours at Thanksgiving narrating a slide show while the turkey gets seriously over-cooked (of course, that’s just a hypothetical scenario). But … on our recent trip...
The ongoing pain for so many in our culture today has led some to adapt the stock greeting “How are you doing?”/ “I’m fine” into something more honest, more vulnerable, more reflective of the moment. “Frankly, I don’t know how I am doing until I...
Where is the tipping point between doing faithful work on behalf of your church and thinking it all depends on you? Not just you individually, but your whole board? You don’t want to let your fellow congregants down and you certainly don’t want to let...
In the 1910s and 1920s, four of the most influential figures of their era—Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs—began taking yearly camping trips together. They called themselves “The Vagabonds.” Imagine it: the man who perfected the assembly line, the genius of electric light, the...
“When you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Politicians of all stripes like to use this simple statement, often attributed to Ronald Reagan, as a guide to commanding attention and winning votes. A 2024 survey asked over 3,000 new car buyers how much a test-drive entered into their car-buying...
The purpose of a beehive isn’t to produce honey. Honey is the by-product of a healthy hive. -Seth Godin When you joined your church board, you may have been told – with all sincerity – that your job is to produce honey. Well, not the sticky sweet essence...
Conversations with church leaders these days often turn to Gen Z (those aged 13-28) and the inevitable question, How do we get them engaged in our church? Sometimes we get to hear what their congregations have already tried, including the use of screens, innovations in...
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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