For me one of the best understandings of how Iโm raising my daughter and caring for children in my community is to embrace parenting as a practice. That means the work I do in raising children is embodied. relational and…
Read More3MMM | Episode 188: Graceful Parenting
Graceful parenting. That’s not a description but rather an aspiration and a need. I love being a parent. And for 17 years of married life before giving birth, I also enjoyed being an adult without parenting responsibilities for children. Each…
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day 2023
March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is a good day to celebrate women and work. Because, women labor for a better world all around the globe. They work for the good of their children, families, neighborhoods, faith communities, companies,…
Read More3MMM | Episode 187: Mental Wellbeing
We need to talk about the mental wellbeing of our children and teens. These years of forming identity, re-modeling the brain, and flying further from the nest are already a big challenge. Add three calendar years of isolation, disrupted schedules…
Read More3MMM | Episode 186: Leading in Loss
Leading in loss is one of the great challenges of this moment. Why? The losses are monumental. The leaders are overwhelmed. And grief is rarely easy. Our guest Dr. Joyce Ann Mercer of Yale Divinity School shares wisdom for attending…
Read More3MMM | Episode 185: Self Compassion
Self compassion. Who needs it? Well, all the humans. It is hard, however, to love others when we struggle to love ourselves. This can be reality for many people. Sometimes it is just a season. For others it is an…
Read More3MMM | Episode 184: Integrating Loss
Often at the Three Minute Ministry Mentor we write and share about integration, but integrating loss and grief is a slightly different topic. This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Joyce Ann Mercer of Yale Divinity School about loss…
Read More3MMM | Episode 183: Ambiguous Loss
What ambiguous losses are you facing right now? I want to speak openly and share a few ambiguous losses that I’m feeling. That is just what Iโm asking you to do in this episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor (3MMM).…
Read More3MMM | Episode 182: Questions for Discernment
On this weekend of remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we invite you to focus on questions for discernment about your vocation. Dr. King invited people to think deeply and transformatively about their work. About justice. About being part…
Read More3MMM | Episode 181: Discerning Vocation
How are you discerning vocation in this new era of ministry?ย So much has changed about life in the last 33 months. Tonight at dinner we observed that the waitstaff in the restaurant was also bussing all the tables, cleaning…
Read More3MMM | Episode 180: Ten Things That Matter
Happy New Year! โฅ I hope you enjoyed ringing in the new year… with friends or at a watch night service at your church or in a quiet dream state in your own comfy bed. Wherever you were, may this…
Read More3MMM | Episode 177: Tending the Fires | 12.28.2022
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…
Read More3MMM | 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…
Read More3MMM | 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. Itโs a story Iโve told many times and…
Read More3MMM | 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),…
Read More3MMM | 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…
Read More3MMM | 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…
Read More3MMM | Episode 171: Mentoring Opportunities
Coming Soon: New Mentoring Opportunities We have been listening to you. And we will continue listening to you.ย We are grateful for the ways that you are leading, guiding, and supporting many people in your care. We heard your needs…
Read More3MMM | 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 –…
Read More3MMM | Episode 169: Clergy Appreciation for a New Era
In Octobers past, Iโve 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…
Read More3MMM | 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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