This is a mother’s day prayer. Yet it is not like the ones I grew up hearing. This prayer is more of a psalm and a lament. It lifts up to God the painful and unspeakable facets of mothering and…
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Deep Peace: A prayer for loss and longing and love
Sometimes life and loss and longing and love are more than our words can contain. Through these challenging days, only a prayer of silence is enough. Because the deep peace of silence is all that can hold life as it…
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3MMM | Episode 106: Eileen Campbell-Reed on Contemplative Prayer
Contemplative prayer This weekend I shared the “Contemplative Prayer” video with some of my new chaplain friends who serve hospitals and prisons in Cuba. I was glad to share this video in particular because it has new Spanish closed captioning.…
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A Prayer for Teachers
We can always use a prayer for teachers. From preschool to grad school, this time of year is usually punctuated by joyous pictures of students and teachers returning to classrooms. But this year is a strange one. Not like any…
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3MMM | Episode 27: Preaching and Prayer
What is the role of prayer and meditation in the practice of ministry? I have worked on that question for many years. It became focused as a question around the time that I finished my doctoral studies. In these last…
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3MMM | Episode 14: Contemplative Prayer
Prayer. What is the connection between the practice of prayer and the practice of ministry? The responses to this question could fill many pages of many books. (My own responses fill many posts in this blog.) The connections we make…
Read MoreOrdinary Time – An Evening of Prayer and Worship for Unity
Last night pastors, congregations, professors and students gathered from all around Nashville, Tennessee, to remember the nine men and women who were brutally murdered in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17 at Mother Emmanuel AME Church. We met at Woodmont Baptist…
Read MoreAdvent III – #AdventVigil Prayers
Advent Vigil O Lord, deliver us from believing that surveillance is a substitute for relationship. Turn us away from thinking cameras alone can deter violence. Give us instead new eyes to see one another with trust and new hearts to…
Read MoreOrdinary Time V – Prayers for Ferguson
Prayers for #Ferguson – Tuesday Yesterday I posted a sweet message about my child’s back-to-school day. Today I’m posting a prayer for the children of #Ferguson who were scheduled to begin classes today, August 19, 2014. Schools will remain closed this…
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3MMM | Best of 2025 and Anticipating 2026
Best of practice in 2025 This morning, on the fifth day of Christmas, we want to share some of our best from 2025 and anticipate 2026. So we are looking back to what landed most often with our readers last…
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Advent Blessings for Worship Leaders (2025)
Advent Blessings for Worship Leaders Stewarding the mysteries of Advent and bringing them to the people is spiritual and theological work. Often it remains hidden even from worshipers themselves. Ministers, we want to acknowledge your vocation, and appreciate your labors.…
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3MMM | Episode 262: Call the Roll
This week we begin a series of conversations with Dr. Charisse Gillett, president of Lexington Theological Seminary. She published a memoir this summer. The book honors both her own young life and also speaks to the lives of young people…
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Guest Blog: Genuine Clergy Appreciation by Sarah Jackson Shelton
Editor’s note: This week we welcome Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton as our guest. Sarah helps us think about how to offer genuine appreciation for clergy. A retired Baptist preacher with 44 years of ordained ministry, she now serves as Pastor…
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Guest Blog: Back to School for Youth and College Students by Laura Edgar
Editor’s Note: This week we welcome Rev. Laura Edgar as our guest. Laura helps us think about back-to-school season for youth and college students. She serves as Support Minister for Three Minute Ministry Mentor. Additionally, she is Coordinator of Chapel…
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Guest Blog: Back to School Reboot by Amanda Smith
Editor’s Note: This week we welcome Rev. Amanda Smith as our guest. Pastor Amanda helps us think about the back-to-school season as a time to reboot, refresh, and restart aspects of ministry in the congregation. She serves as Co-Pastor at…
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3MMM | Remembering Craig Dykstra
In early June three significant public figures in theological education died. Each one contributed through teaching and writing to the education of ministers and the doctoral training of seminary professors. They each held up distinct nodes in the ecology of…
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3MMM | Episode 257: Conflicted Callings
What do you know firsthand about “conflicted callings”? Welcome to Part III of my conversation with Dr. Bonnie Miller-McLemore about her new book Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies about Calling. This week we are taking her third chapter about…
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3MMM | Episode 255: Five Lenten Practices
Five Lenten Practices for Responding to this Moment Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. (Joel 2:1)* As Lent…
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3MMM | Episode 250: Need for Silence
If I asked you today, what would you tell me about your need for silence? In this week’s episode, I ask Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow about the thread of silence that runs through his “faith montage.” Bruce’s new book Everything Good…
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3MMM | Episode 248: How to Worship
Today we are considering the very important question of how to worship? This is our final episode from my conversation with Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes. What a joy to share Cláudio’s enthusiasm and wisdom for practices of creativity, sustaining the…
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3MMM | Episode 247: How to Pray
In my conversation with Rev. Dr Cláudio Carvalhaes this week, we talk about how to pray. We begin with one of Claudio’s recent projects and books Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World. The project…
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