Injustice is a powerful and pervasive reality in our world. Injustice impacts the work of ministry and how we learn pastoral practice no matter our call: pastor, organizer, chaplain, non-profit executive, minister or missionary. Injustices take many forms and do…
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It’s Eastertide! This joyful season is a continuation of our celebrations from Easter Sunday. For seven weeks each year the church observes a season of Eastertide. The scriptures focus on the resurrection stories of Jesus. I grew up in a…
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Place matters. In so many ways it matters. Where you observe Holy Week. Where you go home at night. Where you were raised. Where you work and live and play. Each of these places matter, and they give shape to…
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What do brick walls, American Idol and ministry have to do with each other? Read on . . . Lately, I’ve been watching American Idol. Now, in truth since my daughter was born, I nearly gave up television altogether. The…
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I felt enthralled and overwhelmed by the sculpture of Mary holding Jesus (pictured above) when I stepped into the foyer at Belle Meade United Methodist Church to film this week’s episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor. And the name of the…
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Aha! So many kinds of moments deserve this word! When conducting interviews with 50 seminarians-on-the-way-to-ministry and 25 seasoned pastors and priests, we asked them all to tell us about and “aha moment” of learning in ministry. The Learning Pastoral Imagination…
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There are many powerful rituals available for ministers to engage while leading people of faith. In this post, I want to share two stories about engaging ritual. This past weekend I took some of my seminary students to the “Beating…
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Good Monday morning friends! It’s the first Monday of Lent. How are your Lenten practices going? I am hoping and praying for mercy and grace to lead you along the way this season. I have three things to share with…
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Ash Wednesday We have some good news to share. Weekly episodes of the Three Minute Ministry Mentor are coming to you in a new form: the 3MMM Podcast. Where do you listen to podcasts? On a run, a hike, or…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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