Recent reflections from our TMC community help us consider what we may be losing when optimization, urgency, and constant motion become the norm. In “Unoptimized Church,” Adam challenges the church’s quiet infatuation with efficiency and spectacle. Rather than pushing for reinvention, he calls leaders back to...
As we waited to board a flight in Atlanta last month, one of the terminal’s door alarms went off, sending a shrill wail sailing through the air for minutes on end. As you will see in this video, no one on the concourse appeared to...
Ministry Collaborative program staff (Mark Ramsey, Adam Mixon, Jennifer Watley Maxell, and Amy Valdez Barker) discuss the challenge of ministry in the midst of clashing worldviews, the importance of understanding history, and seeing Scripture as both a lens and mirror....
Busy is the new fine. But maybe with a hint of added importance, value, and productivity - often veiled as complaint. It still means nothing - or at least reveals nothing - in answer to questions such as, “How are you?” “How are things going?”...
Program Staff Adam Borneman and Mark Ramsey speak with Drs. Scott Thumma and Allison Norton (Hartford Institute for Religion Research) about the results of their five-year study into the effects of the pandemic on congregational life, and how they are changing, innovating, and establishing new...
“No Country for Old Men” (2007) is one of my favorite movies. It combines odd, dry humor with dark, disturbing violence, with each scene offering excellent acting and unforgettable dialogue. Good reviews detail its many fascinating elements. The one that seems relevant for Christian ministry...
As far as historians know, three giants of the civil rights and social justice struggles of the twentieth century were never all in the same room at once. Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), Pauli Murray (1910-1985), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) shared guiding principles and...
Ministry Collaborative program staff (Adam Mixon, Beth Daniel, Adam Borneman, and Jennifer Watley Maxell) discuss why January is a good time to take stock, the importance of spiritual disciplines over shortcuts, and how community undergirds all that we do....
This is an odd moment for me to be writing about the danger of busyness in the lives of pastors. Almost a year ago, I was laid off from my position on denominational staff. It was a corporate style process that allowed neither the wrapping up...