My training in psychology prepared me to look with careful attention to the past and to analyze how stories from family and childhood experiences that shape our lives. Not just our personal stories, but also stories embedded in religious rituals…
Read MoreEpiphany III
Storytelling . . .
In 2001, as I was working my way through doctoral courses in Religion, Psychology and Culture at Vanderbilt, I read pastoral theologian, Andy Lester’s book, Hope in Pastoral Care and Counseling. In that book he articulates several important ideas including the notion of “future stories.” The stories we tell ourselves about the future can have as much impact on us in the present as do all the stories we tell about our pasts.
For instance right now I’m carrying around a host of future stories about everything from what time I’ll turn out the lights tonight to what movie I might see this weekend, to where I’ll be teaching and what I will be researching 20 years from now. The power of future stories seems obvious when you try it on. But it is a significant challenge to the psychological traditions which mostly focus on the past as the main or only key to understanding personal identity or behavior in the present.
Read More3MMM | Episode 230: Advocating for Women
Imagine advocating for a place where women and lgbtiqa+ people preach and lead most Sundays. A place where seminary students seek to learn from wise pastors. Where every age person from youngest to eldest has a place and a role…
Read More#PandemicPastoring Report (2022) Download + News
#PandemicPastoring Report (2022) Download + News | Learn about the Author | Watch the Webinar ++++++++++ Pre-order the #PandemicPastoring Study Guide The #PandemicPastoring STUDY GUIDE is available NOW! We are living in a new era of ministry. We need to…
Read MorePastoral Imagination Book
Welcome to the Pastoral Imagination book page. You can observe and imagine doing ministry. Yet until you enter it with your whole self, alongside people in everyday situations, you cannot know fully how a calling comes to life. ~Eileen Campbell-ReedPastoral…
Read More3MMM | Episode 213: Everyday Ministry Puzzles
For women in ministry and lgbtiqa+ ministers*, everyday ministry puzzles are an unavoidable part of living into one’s calling and work. When I listen to the ministers I study, seminary students, friends, and colleagues in ministry, I hear stories about…
Read More3MMM | Episode 205: How Women Thrive in Ministry (Part 2)
Last week I began answering the question of how women thrive in ministry. My inspiration for responding to this question came from Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Meredith Stone. She asked recently: If we imagine…
Read More3MMM | Episode 204: How Women Thrive in Ministry
How do women thrive in ministry? Last week on Thursday, 700+ Baptists gathered in Atlanta for dinner to kick off a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Baptist Women in Ministry. BWIM Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Meredith Stone asked us…
Read More3MMM | Episode 198: Pandemic Over! Now What?
On May 5 the United Nation World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 global health emergency / pandemic ‘over’! Now what? Well, not so fast. It’s more complicated than that. Even the head of the United Nations says so. The threat…
Read More3MMM | Episode 192: Finding Our Way Study Guide
“Finding Our Way” A New Study Guide for the #PandemicPastoring Report Recently, I took the new “Finding Our Way” Study Guide out for a test drive. I’m excited to tell you that it did exactly what we hoped! It got…
Read More3MMM | Episode 187: Mental Wellbeing
We need to talk about the mental wellbeing of our children and teens. These years of forming identity, re-modeling the brain, and flying further from the nest are already a big challenge. Add three calendar years of isolation, disrupted schedules…
Read More3MMM | Episode 184: Integrating Loss
Often at the Three Minute Ministry Mentor we write and share about integration, but integrating loss and grief is a slightly different topic. This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Joyce Ann Mercer of Yale Divinity School about loss…
Read More3MMM | Episode 177: Tending the Fires | 12.28.2022
Endings and Beginnings When I began blogging in 2009, I called the biweekly posts “Keeper of the Fire.” For the next nine years, I continued tending the fires of my life through writing and reflecting. The fires I tended included…
Read More#PandemicPastoring Report Download (2022)
#PandemicPastoring Report Download it Today | Learn about the Author | Watch the Webinar ++++++++++ Order the #PandemicPastoring Study Guide The “Finding Our Way” Study Guide is available now! So much has changed! We are living in a new…
Read More3MMM | Episode 151: Graduation Blessings
Graduation Blessings take many forms. Big accomplishments receive most of the praise. Public words of blessing ring out for awards, achievements, and milestones. And this is right and good. And yet. Much of the substance of life is mostly not…
Read More3MMM | A Bridge to Epiphany
Bridges I have an invitation for you. But first an image. You’ve heard of the Bridge on the River Kwai? A Bridge over Troubled Waters? How about the Bridge to Terabithia? War. Grief. Escape. The search for relief. A bridge…
Read MorePastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life. A new book with Fortress.
You can observe and imagine doing ministry. Yet until you enter it with your whole self, alongside people in everyday situations, you cannot know fully how a calling comes to life. ~Eileen Campbell-Reed, Pastoral Imagination Eileen’s new book Pastoral Imagination:…
Read MorePastoral Imagination | Book Cover Reveal
We are excited to share the cover of Eileen Campbell-Reed’s next book: Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life (Fortress, 2021). Additionally, we are delighted to say the book is introduced in a foreword by Christian Scharen. And…
Read MoreLeading in Times of Crisis
This is very likely to be a stressful week. Stakes are high. People are divided. The world’s eyes are watching the U.S. elections culminating on Tuesday. Pastors, activists, priests, and chaplains are no exception. You must do what you must…
Read More3MMM | Episode 63: Listening for the Holy
Holy Week Stop. Drop. And Listen. Holy week is upon us. As one of the two most intense weeks of the church year, perhaps you feel tempted. I know I have been. Tempted to make everything as meaningful and wondrous…
Read MoreEpisode Index | Season One
Welcome to Season One of Three Minute Ministry Mentor. This index will help you link to weekly episodes: blogs, videos, and podcasts. Season One features fifty topics for learning ministry in practice. These topics are the focus of 50…
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