Is your congregation burned out?

We all know pastors who are burned out from the stresses of 2020 and 2021. Maybe we are willing to say, “I am burned out” — but I wonder if it would help us to think about a congregation being burned out. A Harvard…

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Top 5 Alban resources of 2021

Happy New Year! We begin a fresh year of the Alban Weekly with a look back at the resources that resonated most with Weekly readers. If you feel like you have spent this year continually determining – and determining again…

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Who is with you this Advent?

Advent is one of a few times each year when a pastor sees the full range of people who are engaged with the congregation. Even those with the most distant connections show up to Christmas services. But is that happening…

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Searching for a pastor is sacred work

Clergy know the long periods of silence between contacts from a pastor search committee. Congregation members know the even-longer period between substantive reports about the activities of a search committee. The members of such committees are very, very busy —…

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Budgets matter

The process of deciding a budget sets priorities for the year. Yet the process can be routine and boring. How can the conversations be livelier, more Spirit-inspired? “Let’s Talk About Resources” — part of Lake Institute on Faith & Giving’s “Shifting Ground”…

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Creation care & congregational life

Creation care should be an urgent preaching, teaching and pastoral priority for all of our congregations. In this Weekly, we explore how congregations and other faith-based organizations participate in protecting the planet. In our current ecological crisis, theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim…

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