“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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The bells chime for worship. I am walking away from them. My path leads me deeper into the woods, through a cathedral of trees. A lush carpet of green stretches away to my left. Low hanging clouds reflect on the…
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Hawai’i! This is the most unique Christmas holiday I have ever had in my life. My family and I traveled to Hawai’i where new adventures and new discoveries filled up each day of…
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One of the earliest names I ever heard as associated with supporting women’s ordination and call to ministry was Rev. Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clanton. I was just in college then when I heard that she articulately defended women’s place in ministry.…
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Every year for the last 18 with a few exceptions (in the early years of graduate school and then motherhood) the weekend before Thanksgiving involves my attending the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, and in most of…
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This time last year, I did not even have my promo for the early episodes of Three Minute Ministry Mentor in hand yet. That first short video announcing a new thing arrived while I was attending the American Academy of…
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“Don’t 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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Boundaries can serve us well in the practice of ministry. When boundaries give clarity to relationships and prevent the abuse of power, they are worth maintaining. Boundaries can also become barriers in the work of ministry. How does this happen?…
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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 it’s sustaining to me to have some basic congruence between what I’m doing and what I think is important.” – Rebecca This week’s episode of 3MMM is a story about Rebecca.* She has some things to say about…
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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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Conflict in ministry is hard. It is hard because it often feels personal. It is hard because it can evoke feelings like anger, self-doubt, fear or shame, feelings that are unpleasant to digest. And it is hard because change of…
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“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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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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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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