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…
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How are you discerning vocation in this new era of ministry? 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…
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Happy New Year! ♥ 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…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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The church in the United States is in the throes of a #MeTooReckoning. A public crisis has been unfolding for more than two decades. However, this summer we saw a major uptick in victims speaking out, press coverage, legal actions,…
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