Most pastors entered the pathway of ministry as a result of gradual or dramatic spiri­tual experiences that transformed their way of experiencing themselves and the world. Even those pastors who struggled for years with their sense of call before entering…

What if we could step outside the way we think about organizations; what might we imagine? Imagining other ways of working together is a challenge because the images we consciously and unconsciously hold of organizations are powerful. Gareth Morgan, a…

“Why do we give money to the church?” a child asks her mother, who is filling Sunday’s offering envelope. How will the mother answer her daughter’s question? How do we answer this question for our children? How does the preacher…

Experiencing mystery, practicing hospitality, and recovering a sense of drama are among the nine characteristics of vital and faithful worship that Thomas G. Long identified when studying congregations that seemed to have avoided the tensions around worship that are so…

          Experiencing mystery, practicing hospitality, and recovering a sense of drama are among the nine characteristics of vital and faithful worship that Thomas G. Long identified when studying congregations that seemed to have avoided the tensions around…

As I lead seminars on management in the church, one of the single most vexing issues raised by participants is evaluation of personnel. Pastors and lay leaders sense that the traditional model for annual performance reviews is broken. It is….

In the mid 1970s, I served as the director of educational research and then as advisor to the president and board of trustees at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. With a concern for students and a desire to…

Growing and thriving in ministry happens in many ways and is due to many factors both within and beyond our control. One significant way we can contribute to our own growth as ministers is by associating with mentors, other ministers…

No sooner had the Puritans set foot on the shores of New England than they began to grapple with some of the same church-state questions we still deal with in our churches. Most of the early Puritans, for instance, believed…

The transition from seminary to your first congregational call is similar to becoming a driver. If you want to drive a car, you must pass the written test, take driver training courses with an instructor, drive with a competent adult,…