I like jazz. Not so much smooth jazz or the modal jazz popular among many modern jazz artists, but the progressive jazz fusion of the 1970s and early 1980s. This jazz was inspired by Miles Davis’s ground-breaking albums—Bitches’ Brew, Sketches…
Read MoreBook Review: How Music Works
How Music Works DAVID BYRNE San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2013 “Everything started with a sound. ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ the Bible tells us. We are told it was the sound of God’s voice that caused Nothing…
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Moving From Leadership 1.0 to 2.0
Not only has the Internet, particularly social media, changed the way we operate, but we can use it as a lens to view congregational leadership from a different perspective, a network perspective. Digital strategists talk about the development of the…
Read MoreThe Next American Reformation?
Book review What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution GAR ALPEROVITZ White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013 I am not a political economist. I am, however, someone who often thinks in…
Read MoreA Time of Change . . . A Time of Hope
As I have begun my work as a Field Consultant for the Alban Institute, I am finding pretty much what we all know: many congregations face difficult challenges in our changing times. And yet, it is crucial to note that…
Read MoreCourage Under Fire: Once the decision to fire an employee has been made
I was not surprised by the call. I knew that this pastor had been struggling for some time with a problem employee that he could not bring himself to fire. The employee was at times brilliant in her work, fulfilling…
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Pastoral Transitions in the Age of Social Media
Social media has changed many aspects of our lives and how we engage with others. We shop differently, research differently, communicate differently, and we experience community differently. Many of us broadcast our lives through status updates, photos of coffee and…
Read MoreUnconventional Wisdom: Left Behind
It was an awkward moment. I stood in a glorious stone room with the remnant of a once-large congregation, doing my best to play the neutral as I facilitated their planning conversation. We went round and round, till finally an…
Read MoreThe Congregation as Resource Center
A recent phone conversation with a pastor revealed a unique ministry. The pastor told me about their “teacher’s group.” “Do you mean your Sunday School teachers?” I asked. She explained “No, this is our group of elementary public school teachers….
Read MoreChurch as Wikipedia
At some level, the notion of a “Wikipedia church” —or “Wikicclesia”— makes a lot of sense, even if we have never thought of it before. Wikipedia: The encyclopedia that anyone can edit Wikicclesia: The church that anyone can edit It…
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