This week we want to share a guest blog by my friend, Laura Edgar. She is the Associate Pastor at First Baptist Auburn, Alabama and a graduate of Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. She ministers with students from middle school through…
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Resources for Pandemic Pastoring
Are you a minister or chaplain, an activist or congregational pastor? Whatever your role in ministry, you are now living and working in an unprecedented worldwide season of the coronavirus pandemic. And we want to support you as you bring…
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3MMM | Episode 59: Power of Listening
Listening. Listening matters. It matters for pastoral practice as well as personal relationships and every part of our lives. Listening is intimately connected to paying attention to life with all of our senses. My guest this month is Rev. Dr.…
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3MMM | Episode 57: Family Conversations
Every child needs to be loved and cherished. Yet bringing children into a family is not always easy. In this episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen and I talk about the intersection of the call to…
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3MMM | Episode 56: Graceful Conversations
This week we are excited to share more connections between the Harry Potter series and the practice of ministry, in conversation with Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen. Danielle talks with us about offering grace, receiving grace, and what it takes…
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3MMM | Episode 55: Meaningful Conversations
“You have to meet people where they are for any conversation to be meaningful.” – Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen I am a fan of Harry Potter. I like him of course, but even more I like the whole world…
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3MMM | Episode 54: Thinking with Curiosity
Navigating difference and diversity in US American churches remains among the biggest and most important challenges for ministry leadership today.
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How to Survive Your First Year of Ministry – by Anita Peebles
This week we want to share a wonderful guest blog by my friend, recent graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, and new minister, Anita Peebles. When I asked, Does it feel better to be in the second year of ministry? She…
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3MMM | Episode 51: Embodied Thinking
Epiphany 2020 I awoke on January 6, Epiphany morning, excited and a bit nervous. It’s a big day and I’ve been waiting for it, preparing for it, and anticipating it for a while now. This is the week we launch…
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3MMM | Episode 46: Knowledge Use
When I was in college and seminary, I took a lot of tests. I made really good grades on most of them. I memorized dates, names, cities, battles, theorems, species, genus, phylum, periodic tables, chemical compounds, and rules of grammar…
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3MMM | Episode 44: Defining Moments
“Oh man, she thinks I’m a minister!” Martha had this startling thought while talking with Linda, the newly elected chair of deacons at FBC Benson. The church started out as a place where Martha could meet her field education requirement for seminary.…
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3MMM | Episode 43: Facing Fear
Facing our fears. It can be hard even to admit our fears, much less face them. Fear of loss. Fear of disappointment. Fear of not getting what you want and fear of getting it. Fear of walking down the street. Fear…
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3MMM | Episode 42: Blueprint Stories
Sometimes help is literally in the palm of our hands and we cannot see it. Sometimes our ability to see or imagine or welcome the things we need in life is blocked by the kind of deeply seated beliefs and…
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3MMM | Episode 41: Two Vocations
Vocation. Work. Calling. Ministry. Family. Life. Vocation is a word that often evokes the idea of work. Yet vocation is not just work. Vocation may bring to the top of your mind the idea of calling. Yet vocation is more…
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“Ministry as Spiritual Practice”
“Ministry as Spiritual Practice: How Pastors Learn to See and Respond to the ‘More’ of A Situation” by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed and Christian Scharen Abstract Christian ministry in a changing and challenging context requires “pastoral imagination,” a capacity to perceive…
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3MMM | Episode 37: Salience
Salience. Seeing what is important in a field of things or a situation; sorting through possible meanings to find the one that is pertinent, urgent or more immediate in character. Salience. /ˈsālēəns/ This week’s episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor…
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3MMM | Episode 36: Improvisation
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…
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3MMM | Episode 35: Overcoming Isolation
Erosion. Not a pretty word to think about when it comes to chaplaincy, activism, congregational pastoring, or nonprofit leadership. And yet, it is real. The routines and daily rigors of the work can surely wear ministers down emotionally, relationally and…
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3MMM | Episode 33: Cultivating Questions
“Questions?” When I took a public speaking course a few years ago, this is how the instructor taught us to end our speeches: Ask, “Questions?” And then wait for the audience to start asking. In ministry, teaching, and lots of…
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3MMM | 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…
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3MMM | 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…
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