Taking out the trash reminded me how transition and grief are messy and complicated I move four dusty pink vases, two glass candy dishes, and an old cigar box off the brown microwave cart. I check the drawer and cabinet.…
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3MMM | Episode 217: Vocational Grief
Gratitude is rightly our focus during clergy appreciation month, yet as part of our acknowledgement of clergy today, let’s also attend to the reality of vocational grief. While it can be hard to name and process, and typically remains out…
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3MMM | Episode 191: Talking Through Tragedy
Talking through tragedy, creating sanctuary in a crisis, and accompanying people through ambiguous loss amounts to some of our hardest relational work in the practice of ministry. In this week’s episode I want to talk about all three forms of…
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3MMM | 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…
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3MMM | 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…
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3MMM | 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 I’m asking you to do in this episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor (3MMM).…
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3MMM | 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…
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A Mother’s Day Prayer
This is a mother’s day prayer. Yet it is not like the ones I grew up hearing. This prayer is more of a psalm and a lament. It lifts up to God the painful and unspeakable facets of mothering and…
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Deep Peace: A prayer for loss and longing and love
Sometimes life and loss and longing and love are more than our words can contain. Through these challenging days, only a prayer of silence is enough. Because the deep peace of silence is all that can hold life as it…
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3MMM | Episode 95: Carrie Doehring on Self Reflection
Reflecting on our lives. Sounds easy, right? How about reflecting on your spiritual practices? And what about reflecting on losses and griefs? Or self reflection about the ways you care for people? Each of these forms of self reflection asks…
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3MMM | Episode 67: Fertility Grief
This week we want to share a wonderful guest blog by my friends and fellow ministers, Erin Robinson Hall and Mary Elizabeth Hill Hanchey. Today marks eight weeks of pandemic life at my house. The pile up of grief is…
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3MMM | Episode 65: Beauty and Joy
If we talk about joy all the time, are we ignoring the great needs and suffering of the world? ~ Mary Clark Moschella In the season of the Coronavirus Pandemic, this is a very important question. Can we indeed hold…
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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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