Improvise. Rearrange and fit to size. Change. Adapt. And revise Move it around as time flies. Pivot. Shift. Sidestep. Riff. Play it like jazz. Do you get my drift? A finely honed practice of professional tennis, or vegan cooking, or…
Read More3MMM | Episode 34: Action + Reflection for Beginnings
Action. Reflection. Action. It was winter. I took the pager home, laid it on my night stand, and I prayed it would not go off in the night. Of course it did. I was not really prepared for what to…
Read More3MMM | Episode 32: Learning Goals Part 3
Accountability. Without some accountability, learning goals can certainly fall flat. Learning practices as complex and subtle as ministry, does not work well in isolation or without good partners, mentors and friends. Being accountable to them requires trust and openness. Today’s…
Read More3MMM | Episode 30: Learning Goals Part 1
BIG. Squishy. Learning goals. Everyone working to learn the practice of ministry needs at least one or two of these. When I ask students to imagine this kind of goal, I’m urging them to think long-term and big-picture, to set…
Read More3MMM | 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,…
Read MorePress 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,…
Read More3MMM | 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…
Read MoreTeaching
Since 2004 my teaching remains focused on seminary and divinity school students preparing for ministry and higher education. My other academic teaching includes work with doctoral students, undergraduates, and incarcerated students earning college credit. Currently I am a pedagogy consultant…
Read MoreAcademic Entrepreneur
Recently I traveled across the country with some of my newest students to attend a four-day orientation. Each morning, noon and evening we prayed with the brothers in the Benedictine Monastery. In the alternating hours we held our own sessions…
Read MorePastoral Wisdom Part 1 ~ Mentoring
Seeking Pastoral Wisdom Part 1: Mentoring It is something most ministers want. And it can feel impossible to find. Yet seeking pastoral wisdom is vital for the work of the church and for leading people of faith. Becoming pastorally wise…
Read MoreA Blessing for the Preachers
Festival of Young Women Preachers April 7, 2016 | Eden Seminary | St. Louis, Missouri A Blessing for the Preachers Bless these hands as they handle sacred Scripture, and sacred stories, and sacred moments of the preaching and pastoral life.…
Read MoreEpiphany | Martha Stearns Marshall Month
Martha Stearns Marshall Month* Six Stages of Why You Should Invite a Woman to Preach Why should you invite a woman to preach in your church during Martha Stearns Marshall Month, this February? Well, it depends on where your church is along…
Read MoreOrdinary Time VI – Sermon Checklist
Sermon Checklist Planning a sermon has a lot of moving parts. Especially for beginners, when you get caught up in the sermon itself, it’s easy to forget logistical details. Here’s a checklist that may help, so you don’t find yourself tripping into the…
Read MoreOrdinary Time IV – God is (Still) Waiting
God Is (Still) Waiting More Baptist churches are calling women as pastors, but the gender gap remains large. This coming Sunday, Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, N.C., will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ordination of a woman in…
Read MoreOrdinary Time III – Closing the Mentoring Gap
Closing the Mentoring Gap A major key to closing the gender gap in ministry is mentoring to help women improve skills and knowledge and introduce them to networks that lead to jobs. This week more than 2,000 Baptists, who openly…
Read MoreEastertide VIII
Closing the Gap Despite progress, the gender gap among Baptist pastors remains persistent. In recent weeks two prominent progressive Baptist churches moved to call well-known Baptist pastors. Notably in both calls the pastors are women. Riverside Church in New York…
Read MoreOrdinary Time V
Remembering Will Campbell: Does Anyone Here NOT Know Amazing Grace? Memorial Service for Will Campbell, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee Saturday, June 22, 2013 Sitting under the words “Love your enemies” I feel my heart swell. They are painted on the…
Read MoreOrdinary Time XIV
The number of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches currently pastored by women?
Five Percent.
Eighteen hundred churches. Ninety women.
You do the math.
This is good news. But somehow laying out the starkness of that figure . . . well, it doesn’t exactly add up to great news.
Ordinary Time VI
CBF General Assembly 2012 Top Ten Favorite Moments This year’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly was big. For starters it was in Texas where the hats, the egos and the Convention Center all compete for biggest and best. But beyond…
Read MoreAdvent IV : Rethinking the Posture of Waiting
Rethinking the Posture of Waiting (2011) Here we are on the third Sunday in Advent, a celebration of Joy. We are thinking and waiting in expectation. And although my daughter awoke sick long before dawn, she is on the mend,…
Read MoreSpeaking & Leading
Upcoming Engagements April 1, 2016 Scholastica Luncheon for Women in Ministry Report from the Thailand Pilgrimage Scarritt-Bennett Center Nashville, Tennessee 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Register Here April 7, 2016 Festival of Young (Women) Preachers Sponsored by the Alliance…
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