Executive Director Mark Ramsey speaks with Drs. Allison Norton and Scott Thumma (Hartford Institute for Religion Research) about the latest results from their five-year study into congregational life from the pandemic and beyond, including what the data says - and doesn't - about rising church...
The mounting daily fatigue so many of us live with is not merely a consequence of busyness or complex work-life balance, but the pervasive and unrelenting false promise that there is always one more way to perfectly optimize your life. The message is that if you...
Less than halfway through Act One of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman’s wife Linda, seeing him stumble toward oblivion, cries out forcefully to their two distracted sons: I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His...
TMC Program Staff Adam Mixon and Adam Borneman continue their conversation with the Rev. Sherrad Hayes (Union Baptist Church, West Point, GA) about the disruption of the Gospel, learning not to see efficiency as the goal, and the importance of fostering genuine encounters with the...
An occupational hazard of vocational ministry is that everything - Scripture, worship, conversations … life - is seen and experienced with an eye to using it in a sermon, bible study, class … or blog post! Clergy and ministry leaders are often so focused on...
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver wrote these lines, sometimes titled “Instructions for Living,” when she was approaching her eighth decade of life. Last month, Jonathan Haidt invoked them to frame his NYU commencement address on the importance of “treasuring” one’s attention. We think that...
TMC Program Staff Adam Borneman and Adam Mixon speak with the Rev. Sherrad Hayes (Union Baptist Church, West Point, GA) about the "long game" of spiritual transformation, the difference between the immediate and the urgent, and the importance of our core identity in Christ. Episode Transcript. ...
The Problem We Share There are a few things about human relationships that are absolutely unavoidable. We all change, and we will disappoint one another. We all have the capacity to act selfishly and get on someone’s nerves. And we all want to be seen, heard,...
If your church board feels tired and confused from time to time, trust that you are in good company. Compared to what church boards dealt with in earlier decades, today’s leaders are facing a tsunami of challenges across the world and inside the church. In a...