Q: Our congregation is searching for a new pastor. Out of the pool of available applicants, how do we identify and call the right leadership? We want the best fit possible. A: The work of the calling committee (or pastoral…
Read MoreFollowers Wanted: An Antidote to Self-Help
As I browsed through my local Barnes & Noble bookstore recently, thumbing through books that piqued my interest while wondering if it would be too indulgent to get a second Mocha Frappuccino from the attached Starbucks, I found myself lost…
Read MoreBuilding Blocks: An Anthropological Approach to Congregational Size
Ever since Arlin J. Rothauge published Sizing Up a Congregation for New Member Ministry1 in 1983, mainline Protestants have been using the terms family,pastoral, program, and corporation to identify congregations by size, starting with the smallest.2 A sociological axiom underlying…
Read MorePastors and Managers: An Executive Coach Assesses Leadership Skills
Last year, after 15 years in management and a lifetime in the church, I left my job as a human resources vice president in a Fortune 500 company to answer a call that had been forming for several years. Through…
Read MoreThe Good Life: Celebrating the Pastoral Vocation
A large handful of my friends have left the parish ministry in recent years. It has gotten my attention. There are times when I feel a bit like a character in an Agatha Christie story. As people all around me…
Read MoreNew Life for Dry Bones: Leadership in the African American Church
The prophet Ezekiel tells of a vision in which he is sent into a valley of bones by the Lord. The dry bones symbolize the people’s despondency in their time of exile, and God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”…
Read MoreThe Leadership We Need: Negotiating Up, Not Down
Perhaps, when Abraham sought to save Sodom by interceding on behalf of the city, his attempt was rooted in the Hebrew tradition of trusting in the presence of 50 righteous men to provide salvation. But he was not assured that…
Read MoreA Leadership Story: Alban Institute President James P. Wind Sees Hope in the Midst of Crisis
Not too long ago I stood in Explorers Hall of the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., staring at the James Caird, a 22-foot whaleboat. Eighty-five years ago, six men sailed this boat 800 miles across open, brutally cold,…
Read MoreComing Full Circle: Starting Over at Retirement
For a number of months I wondered how I would know when it was time to retire. I took a couple of months off two summers before I did retire, hoping that an extended vacation and time for reflection would…
Read MoreSeasons of Joy and Sacrifice
For the past few years I have taught a course on the theology and meaning of call at Andover-Newton Theological School. I always emphasize to my students that a healthy call involves both joy and sacrifice—something I have learned from…
Read More