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…
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3MMM | Episode 13: Stakes of Ministry
In this week’s episode of the Three Minute Ministry Mentor, I share a story from my first call in ministry. I have preached about this moment when I missed the point, thinking the call was for someone else. In particular…
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3MMM | Episode 12: Mentoring for Skill
I believe one of the easiest temptations when navigating one-to-one mentoring is to carry our big relational needs and expectations into the work. I know in my first call out of seminary, I wanted a mentor so much. I wanted…
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3MMM | Grateful for Our First Sponsors
As we approach the conclusion of the first quarter of the Three Minute Ministry Mentor, I am taking a moment to pause and say THANK YOU to our first-quarter sponsors, Glendale Baptist Church and Second Presbyterian Church, both located in Nashville,…
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3MMM | Episode 11: Listening
I like to feel heard. And understood. How about you? Yet finding people who really do that well and who have time to listen carefully can be a challenge. And then there is the trust. The best listening and understanding…
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3MMM | Episode 10: Failing Creatively
Last week I joined ministers and seminary professors from all over the US and Canada at the bi-annual meeting of the Association of Theological Field Education (ATFE) in Asheville, North Carolina. I felt encouraged and hopeful in the time I…
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3MMM | Episode 9: Ministry as Relational
This weekend a dear person in my life died unexpectedly. Louise and I have been part of the same faith community for 18 years. She was a member of that community for decades before I arrived. Lou and I shared…
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3MMM | Episode 8: Equity in Ministry
I am composing this post between the Women’s Marches across the U.S. on Saturday and the MLK Day marches on Monday. So many inequalities still plague the social fabric of our lives. So much animosity still divides this country. Churches…
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3MMM | Episode 7: Ministry as Embodied
I was chatting recently with a friend. Don Flowers is a pastor in Canada. We’ve been traveling in the same circles for years. He’s a funny guy and while we were catching up, he said to me something like, “Hey…
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3MMM | Episode 6: Supporting Peers
This week’s episode of the Three Minute Ministry Mentor is about you connecting with your friends as a support for your practice of ministry. Doing ministry is really not solo work, as we already considered in Episode 4: Collaboration. Finding…
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3MMM | Episode 5: Being There
Happy New Year’s Eve! What kind of year has 2018 been for you? Happy to see it go? Or wishing you could hang on to the good of it for a little longer? Perhaps you are a New Year’s resolution…
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3MMM | Episode 4: Collaboration
As Advent comes to a close and the practice of waiting gives over to a final anticipation on Christmas Eve, I invite you to take a moment and think with me about the necessity and joy of collaboration in ministry.…
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3MMM | Episode 3: Self Reflection
I remember early in the planning stages of the Learning Pastoral Imagination (LPI) Project that Chris Scharen and I had several thoughtful conversations about whether or not self-reflection was essential for a robust pastoral imagination. My training in pastoral theology,…
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Press Release: Three Minute Ministry Mentor
Nashville, TN – A new 52-week video series, “Three Minute Ministry Mentor” (3MMM), is launching online this Advent. Each video, just three minutes in length, is designed to help ministers by easing the burden of isolation, inspiring attention to learning,…
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3MMM | Episode 2: Seeing Holy Depths
Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. It gives me a quiet resting place in the middle of the headlong rush to the end of the school term, the end of the calendar year, the urgency of…
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3MMM | Episode 1: Ministry as a Practice
Welcome to Advent, the start of a new church year! I am glad for new beginnings and I am delighted to launch a new project at the opening of this particular spiritual and liturgical season of the church year. Eight…
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Three Minute Ministry Mentor
New Weekly Video Series Launches in Advent Everyone in ministry needs a mentor. Whether you have one currently or feel like you could really use one, our new video series, Three Minute Ministry Mentor, is created exactly with you in…
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