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…
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3MMM | Episode 176: The Longest Night | 12.21.2022
How is it with your soul today? The last 33 months have been so much. They have taken quite a toll… on life, on church, on everyone who is called to ministry, on our relationships, and our embodied ways of…
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3MMM | Episode 175: Happy Fourth Birthday!
Happy Fourth Birthday, Three Minute Ministry Mentor! We are excited to celebrate and grateful for all the learning and connection over the last four years. In Advent of 2018, we launched 3MMM. It’s a story I’ve told many times and…
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3MMM | Episode 174: Conditions of Wellness
What are the conditions of wellness that make life stable and meaningful? I considered this question over the past week while I attended the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in Denver, Colorado. Along with the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL),…
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3MMM | Episode 173: Listening to Children
One of our most important tasks coming out of the last 30 months is to be listening to children. In the recently released #PandemicPastoring Report, I wrote, “teenagers, children and adults everywhere suffered social isolation and profound stress.” The multiple…
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3MMM | Episode 172: Life-Giving Rituals
For two months I have been saying daily that we need more space for lament and life-giving rituals as we transition into a new era of ministry. Today I offer three idea buckets to support you in our ongoing work…
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3MMM | Episode 171: Mentoring Opportunities
Coming Soon: New Mentoring Opportunities We have been listening to you. And we will continue listening to you. We are grateful for the ways that you are leading, guiding, and supporting many people in your care. We heard your needs…
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3MMM | Episode 170: Thank a Minister
This is clergy appreciation month, and we are here this week to help you thank a minister. Who needs thanking? A minister or pastor from your past who helped you to discern a call? Or perhaps your current minister –…
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3MMM | Episode 169: Clergy Appreciation for a New Era
In Octobers past, I’ve written about Clergy Appreciation Month, and in 2022 we invite you to think about clergy appreciation for a new era. Because I surveyed an interviewed clergy between 2020 and 2022, I have a pretty good idea…
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3MMM | Episode 168: Communion and Community
World Communion Sunday created an opportunity for reflection on theologies of communion and community in a new era of ministry. The following is a sermon I preached at Glendale Baptist Church on October 2, 2022. ++++++++ Philippians 4: 1-9 4:1…
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3MMM | Episode 167: Five Things Ministers Need Now
The times we are living in remain profoundly challenging, so today we are launching a series on five things ministers need now. The world is somewhat deceptive for all its rush and efforts to get things “back to normal.” Yet…
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3MMM | Episode 166: A Blessing for Seminary
Dear seminary student, Welcome to a new year of intense learning and preparation for the practice of ministry. Perhaps you’re feeling a little nervous? Or maybe it is old hat by now! Either way, I want to offer you a…
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3MMM | Episode 165: Ministry’s New Era
We are now living in ministry’s new era. To even say that, sounds questionable to my own mind. Yet I look around at all the changes, and I think through all I have heard in the past 2+ years. And…
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3MMM | Episode 164: Wilderness Beauty
I’ve been trying to get to Ring Lake Ranch for about a dozen years because I wanted to experience its wilderness beauty. This was finally the summer that I could make it happen. The timing was tricky. Traveling meant making…
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#PandemicPastoring Report 2022
Download the report now #PandemicPastoring ushers in a new era of church leadership For immediate release August 18, 2022 Press contact: Eileen Campbell-Reed [email protected] (615) 510-1510 NASHVILLE, TN – Researcher and author, Eileen Campbell-Reed conducted a 22-month qualitative study of…
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3MMM | Episode 163: Pandemic Reflections
The following pandemic reflections offer a glimpse into what is coming in the #PandemicPastoring Report. Have you signed up for the Webinar yet? ++++++++++++++ As I am heading out the door this morning, I decide, standing at my jewelry dish…
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3MMM | Episode 162: Change-Ups
Last week, on the heels of a summer with everyone in my family off on their own adventures, I met up with my husband, Lynn, in New York City. We enjoyed walking through the city streets and parks, riding the…
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3MMM | Episode 160: Music that Carries You
Music that carries you and me through our lives is worth noting. Songs, hymns, and everyday music can be a source of profound healing. Music connects us to our communities. It holds memories and engenders hope. It is a relational…
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3MMM | Episode 159: Invisible Legacy
What will your invisible legacy be? Where have you given of yourself in a gracious, yet hidden way? When did you donate to an urgent cause, yet spoke of it to no one? How have you put in a good…
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3MMM | Episode 158: #PandemicPastoring and Women
What do we know about #PandemicPastoring and women? How has it impacted clergywomen? How have lay leaders been crucial for keeping the church going? Since the declaration of a global pandemic in March of 2020, I continue to be in…
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3MMM | Episode 157: Spiritual Well-Being
Sunday, July 3 I sat down to meditate for 10 minutes this morning. It was a disaster. No effort to pray contemplatively is really wasted. But I was a mess. I vacillated between almost falling asleep and my mind being…
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