Counting the Costs of “Independence Day” If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? (Luke 14:26, CEB) If we want…
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How do we shift the balance of our internal narratives, so that we become witnesses rather than victims of our fear, grief, pain, and trauma? Recently our host, Eileen Campbell-Reed led a webinar for the Wayne Oates Institute: “Working with People in…
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This Friday we welcome guest blogger Lauren Plummer who offers a encouraging word for #pandemicpastoring. Lauren is a pastoral intern at Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, TN, where she recently preached this sermon in a zoom worship service. We welcome Lauren’s…
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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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We need new rituals for #PandemicGrief. This is our space to gather and collect our best practices for grieving in this season of isolation. Part of the struggle of leaning into joy or beauty — which are desperately needed for…
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Paying attention fully to a ministry setting, requires some practice and skill. Pastoral attention can be learned and cultivated over time. One way to grow in those skills is through the work pastoral ethnography. Professional ethnographers spend many years of…
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This summer has been one of the hardest on record. What a gift to have the wisdom, insights, and pastoral presence of Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crumpton to guide and inspire us! This week, Dr. Crumpton, who is associate professor at …
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This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Stephanie Crumpton about caring for girls and women who have experienced violence. Earlier we talked about the complexity and intentionality of care, particularly for Black women and girls. Our focus today is…
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Pandemic. Protest. Parenting. Pedagogy. Pastoring. Whew! This is probably the strangest and most demanding summer in living memory for most of us! We are challenged in new ways. We are facing demands at every turn. And we are trying to…
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This week we want to share a guest blog by Phoebe Capps, church intern at First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia. Phoebe’s responsibilities include working with children and youth. She shares with us what she is learning about…
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How does giving love, attention, and care to women and girls who are Black reorient our sense of ministry… making it better everywhere and with everybody? I asked Dr. Stephanie Crumpton this question as a follow up in our recent…
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There is a tension that exists for contemporary activists and organizers on how to deal rightly with the legacy they have been handed from ancestors and elders in the ongoing work of radical Black liberation and freedom. ~Dr. Stephanie Crumpton…
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Sometimes the word of the Lord comes. It might be while you’re doing the dishes. It happened that way for Dr. Stephanie Crumpton. It was her first semester teaching at Lancaster Theological Seminary. It was 2014. Her new students were…
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“You can’t keep ignoring the particular kind of grief that women and girls carry to the altar each week.” Dr. Stephanie Crumpton Dr. Stephanie Crumpton, McCormick Theological Seminary, joins us again this week to talk about the practice of ministry.…
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There is something about collecting myself… so I can expect to be collected and depend on the capacity to stop. ~Dr. Stephanie Crumpton In this week’s episode of 3MMM, it is my delight to begin sharing a conversation with my…
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Not only has the world turned upside down in this long pandemic season, now it is also in flames. It burns with fires that seek change. It burns with holy calls for justice. Even as the world burns, even as…
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