What is the church for? Increasingly, this question is coming into focus as an essential question to ask – and answer – for congregations, their pastors, and their church boards. Most faith communities have long assumed they know what they exist for. Sadly, the year 2020...
In a round table discussion recorded in early 2020, Ministry Collaborative staff Mark Ramsey, Jennifer Maxell, Adam Borneman, and Adam Mixon discuss the importance of uncertainty and creativity, and how diversity builds capacity. ...
2020 is one for the books for sure. We have all been riding this ridiculous rollercoaster for months now and are likely worn thin by worry and anxiety. Our souls are disquieted by the uncertainty of the times. But amid these crises, I offer you...
Before writing our piece this week, we called a colleague who is a gifted pastor of a mid-sized healthy congregation. “So, what are you thinking about in the midst of this fall’s stewardship emphasis in your church?” The pastor’s succinct response: “Ugh.” Among pastors and church leaders,...
In a conversation recorded in early 2020, Ministry Collaborative staff Mark Ramsey, Adam Mixon, Jennifer Maxell, and Adam Borneman discuss how the long-term trend of declining attendance offers an opportunity for churches to engage faithfully in holistic, fuller, Spirit-led living....
Half-hearted ministry is killing us. Every bit as much as half-hearted living leads us into dead ends, half-hearted ministry is leaving congregations adrift and clergy and other church staff looking for, as more than one pastor has said to me lately, “a ticket out.” This half-heartedness...
For some, it is the loss of salad bars. As the Wall Street Journal reported last week: A casualty of the pandemic, the days of the salad bar are gone for the foreseeable future. …[T]o devotees, the banishment of buffet bars signifies the closing of a cherished...
In a conversation recorded back in early March, Program Curator, Jennifer Maxell spoke with the Rev. Susan Rogers (The Well at Springfield, Jacksonville) about old ways giving birth to the new, the importance of belonging, and being a church without a building before COVID....
“The antidote to exhaustion is not rest, it’s wholeheartedness.” – David Whyte. This simple yet profound statement has captured the imaginations of The Ministry Collaborative (TMC) staff since we discovered it last spring. At that time, we were all new to pandemic life and experiencing the...