An anthropologist from Pluto might be forgiven for misclassifying board and committee meetings among the sacred rites of Earth religion. Meetings, with their arid liturgy of motions, seconds, minutes, and reports, give comfort and security to some, while driving others…

In a 2008 commencement address to Duke graduates, novelist Barbara Kingsolver advised a wizened optimism to an audience raised in the Age of Irony, an audience only too well aware that “we’re a world at war, ravaged by disagreements, a…

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…

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…

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….

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…