This year. This year has been exhausting, dripping in grief and loss. No way around it. And yet. The exhaustion, grief, and loss are not the whole story. There are small miracles and moments that inspire gratitude. One thing I…
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3MMM | Episode 88: Shepherding Justice
Nashvillians know Rev. Dr. Judy Cummings as a social justice advocate, pastor, and community organizer. Yet she understands herself to be a shepherd at heart. Dr. Cummings, pastor of New Covenant Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, is a recognized leader,…
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3MMM | Trauma Healing and Recovery
Trauma inflicts its wounds in a moment, yet recovery may take a lifetime. With proper attention and care, however, healing is possible. +++++++ Earlier this week, I wrote about Trauma Informed Leadership. And I shared information that all spiritual, health…
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3MMM | Trauma Informed Leadership
What is trauma informed leadership? Why does it matter? If you are engaging in the practice of ministry, I hope you will read on. This fall I am teaching a course in “Trauma Informed Pastoral and Spiritual Care” for Union…
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3MMM | Clergy Appreciation Week
This week we are focussing on clergy appreciation! This year has challenged us all. And this seems like a good time to pause and be grateful for our clergy leaders. We are going to spend the week in gratitude for…
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3MMM | Episode 87: Advent Preparation
Advent It’s coming. It will be here in the blink of an eye. In a year filled with pandemics and amplified racial injustice and healthcare disparities and intense election politics, it is hard to imagine what Advent could be like…
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3MMM | Episode 86: Where God is Present
Where is God present? This is a question that circles through my fourth and final conversation segment with Dr. Pete Ward who teaches in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, UK. Over the last few weeks we…
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3MMM | Episode 85: How Pop Culture Matters
Beyoncé. Kim Kardashian. Chadwick Boseman. Gwyneth Paltrow. Notorious RBG. Whether they are trending on Twitter, headlining their next big movie, speaking out on social issues, or suddenly gone from this life, celebrities and the culture of celebrity have a powerful reach…
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3MMM | Episode 84: Why Music Matters
In our last Episode 83, Pete and I talked about why ministers need to study culture. He gave us two reasons: People come to seminary shaped and formed by culture innately — largely unawares. Reflexivity is that significance of learning…
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3MMM | Episode 83: Why Culture Matters
The first time I met Pete Ward in person we had a theological argument. We also had drinks and some laughs in a mutual friend’s living room. As I recall, Mary McClintock Fulkerson and I might have teamed up against…
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3MMM | Episode 82: Ethical Wills
Chaplaincy Jennifer Hundley Batts Thomas sat down with me in the late spring to talk about ethical wills. She helped me to share with my students in the Death, Dying, and Bereavement course at Union Theological Seminary about the significance…
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3MMM | Episode 81: Beyond the Walls
This week we are sharing our final conversation with Rev. Alisha Smith Haddock. What a joy to speak with her this month about her calling to do justice work and her many collaborations to rebuild North Nashville after the March…
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3MMM | Episode 80: Called to Collaboration
This week we are going deeper into our conversation with Rev. Alisha Smith Haddock. She is helping us see how multiple factors are impacting the community of North Nashville. Back in March 2020, Nashville was hit hard by tornados that…
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3MMM | Episode 79: Called to Justice
“I knew early on I was called to this work.” -Rev. Alisha Smith Haddock Called to ministry Vocational calling comes in all different sizes, shapes and forms. Traditional congregational ministry, in spite of what people think, is not the only…
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3MMM | Episode 78: Grief Rituals
LOn Sunday afternoon I hosted a conversation on Zoom with friends from my childhood church. Together we were remembering one of our friends, a fellow youth group member, who died earlier this summer. It was good to be with each…
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3MMM | Episode 77: Risking Care
This summer has been one of the hardest on record. What a gift to have the wisdom, insights, and pastoral presence of Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crumpton to guide and inspire us! This week, Dr. Crumpton, who is associate professor at …
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3MMM | Episode 76: Communal Healing & Care
This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Stephanie Crumpton about caring for girls and women who have experienced violence. Earlier we talked about the complexity and intentionality of care, particularly for Black women and girls. Our focus today is…
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3MMM | Summer Self-Care Giveaways
Pandemic. Protest. Parenting. Pedagogy. Pastoring. Whew! This is probably the strangest and most demanding summer in living memory for most of us! We are challenged in new ways. We are facing demands at every turn. And we are trying to…
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How To Survive Zoom Fatigue: Guest Blog by Phoebe Capps
This week we want to share a guest blog by Phoebe Capps, church intern at First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia. Phoebe’s responsibilities include working with children and youth. She shares with us what she is learning about…
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3MMM | Episode 75: Sacred and Rigorous Care
How does giving love, attention, and care to women and girls who are Black reorient our sense of ministry… making it better everywhere and with everybody? I asked Dr. Stephanie Crumpton this question as a follow up in our recent…
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3MMM | Episode 74: Activism & Legacy
There is a tension that exists for contemporary activists and organizers on how to deal rightly with the legacy they have been handed from ancestors and elders in the ongoing work of radical Black liberation and freedom. ~Dr. Stephanie Crumpton…
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