What a delight to share so many conversations with Danielle Tumminio Hansen during the month of February! In these episodes of Three Minute Ministry Mentor she shared insights, stories and questions that really deepen our understanding of ministry as a…
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What is the value of Sabbath? Why do we need to rest? What are the connections between the spiritual practice of deep and spacious rest and learning the practice of ministry? Sleep is the most basic form of daily rest,…
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Everyone in ministry needs a mentor. Whether you have one currently or feel like you could really use one, Three Minute Ministry Mentor (3MMM) is a video series created with you in mind! Perhaps your calling takes shape as a…
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โDonโt ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who are alive.” ~Howard Thurman [1] What makes you come alive? What brings…
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What does holy fierceness look like? seeking justice speaking prophetically asking the right questions at the right moments helping communities see and own their complicity in racist ideologies being bold, taking risks, speaking truth to power identifying discriminations giving thoughtful…
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“I think itโs sustaining to me to have some basic congruence between what Iโm doing and what I think is important.โ – Rebecca This week’s episode of 3MMM is a story about Rebecca.* She has some things to say about…
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Recently I joined a few other preachers to talk about the craft of sermon writing. We held our conversation as a panel discussion in a Sunday morning worship service. Six women talking together about how they might plan for preaching…
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Salience. Seeing what is important in a field of things or a situation;ย sorting through possible meanings to find the one that is pertinent, urgent or more immediate in character. Salience. /หsฤlฤษns/ This week’s episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor…
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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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“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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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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My training in psychology prepared me to look with careful attention to the past and to analyze how stories from family and childhood experiences that shape our lives. Not just our personal stories, but also stories embedded in religious rituals…
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This last episode of Three Minute Ministry Mentor explored vocational discernment. This week we consider a spiritual practice which is valuable for the big questions of life as well as the daily practices of knowing which way to go and…
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Injustice is a powerful and pervasive reality in our world. Injustice impacts the work of ministry and how we learn pastoral practice no matter our call: pastor, organizer, chaplain, non-profit executive, minister or missionary. Injustices take many forms and do…
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I felt enthralled and overwhelmed by the sculpture of Mary holding Jesus (pictured above) when I stepped into the foyer at Belle Meade United Methodist Church to film this week’s episode ofย Three Minute Ministry Mentor. And the name of the…
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Aha! So many kinds of moments deserve this word! When conducting interviews with 50 seminarians-on-the-way-to-ministry and 25 seasoned pastors and priests, we asked them all to tell us about and “aha moment” of learning in ministry. The Learning Pastoral Imagination…
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Last week I joined ministers and seminary professors from all over the US and Canada at the bi-annual meeting of the Association of Theological Field Education (ATFE) in Asheville, North Carolina. I feltย encouraged and hopeful in the time I…
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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…
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