In the last two weeks we have been exploring a conversation triangle – one way of visualizing where church board discussions get stuck and how they can be helped to move deeper. Every group conversation has at least at three points: content, individual experience, and...
Executive Director Mark Ramsey speaks with Elise Erikson Barrett (ECFPL, Leadership Education at Duke Divinity) about being equipped to talk about money faithfully, the mixed blessing of multi-vocational ministry, and the importance of healthy evaluation processes. ...
Ministry is incredibly – and increasingly – complex. Let’s name this and own it. AND let’s keep going. There’s too much at stake, and your calling to ministry matters. It’s having a ripple effect that will extend beyond what you assume or imagine. You’re planting...
Last week, we shared a conversation triangle, a diagram that can help you analyze where your church board meetings get ‘stuck’ and improve the flow of discussion in future meetings. At their best, church board meetings move dynamically among the three points that form this triangle:...
Program Staff Jennifer Maxell and Adam Mixon continue their conversation with Gigi "Dr. G" Khanyezi about community practices that create healing, the transformative power of incarnation, and what it means to create a culture that doesn't trample emotions....
A couple of well-known reminders for you today: Joshua 1:9 “… I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage!” (Eugene Peterson’s Message translation) So also, Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect...
This happens in church board meetings. A discussion is going well, with many contributions, and then one member speaks up, powerfully and at length, about how the issue has impacted them personally. It touches on their grief, fear, pain – something deep and very difficult. ...
Program Director Adam Borneman speaks with the Rev. Karen Rohrer (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) about ridding ourselves of pretension, the importance of letting go of an idealized past, and what Jonah teaches her about the ambivalence in ministry....
How do you measure the vitality of a congregation? Ask almost any denominational body over the past several decades, and they’re bound to say something about the three B’s – bodies, budgets, buildings. The assumption seems to be that the fuller the pews on Sunday mornings, the...