“Choices for Change” (the September 12, 2011 Alban Weekly, adapted from Bob Sitze’s It’s Not Too Late: A Field Guide to Hope) talks about two choices for change that we can make: thinking our way into acting differently, or acting our way into thinking differently. Sitze’s article specifically focuses these choices on changes that strengthen hope.
Choices that strengthen hopeful thinking, notes Sitze, include recollecting our thinking at especially hopeful moments in our lives, imagining ourselves as predominately hopeful, asking ourselves what it would take to forsake more discouraging ways of thinking, and asking loved ones to remind us about keeping hope as our ideal choice for approaching life.
And choices that strengthen hopeful acting? Sitze suggests imitating people whose hopeful behaviors we admire, acting for just one day as if our problems were actually opportunities, listening carefully to the words we use, and recounting our assets—”the gifts from God that are useful.”
The author makes additional suggestions; if you haven’t already read the article, please do so now.
What resources can strengthen our commitment to change in ways that strengthen hope? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider Carol Howard Merritt’s Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation, as well as the in-depth piece from the Congregational Resource Guide, “Hope in the Face of Anxiety.”
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
Drawing on the reflections of both the ancient mystic Brother Lawrence and contemporary mystic Gerald May, Bruce Epperly discusses how practicing the presence of God aims to see the “holy in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary events in life” and to foster “the growth of God’s work in people’s lives.”
Epperly’s September 5, 2011 Alban Weekly article, “Practicing the Presence of God in Ministry” (adapted from this book, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry) tells us that “each moment provides an opportunity to receive and give God’s blessing, counsel, and wisdom.”
Epperly describes the five steps of awakening to God’s presence: pausing (to notice what’s in front of us); noticing (looking beyond the obvious to the deeper dimensions of what we see); opening (bathing ourselves in the wonder of life); yielding and stretching (following God’s wisdom); and responding (in our unique ways to the presence of the holy).
And Epperly reminds us of Julian of Norwich’s observation that “something as simple as a hazelnut exists because of God’s lively presence within it.” He goes on to surmise that this is “surely the case for fireflies, bits of paper on the floor, or church board members.”
What resources might help you and your congregation in practicing the presence of God? In addition to the items listed at the end of the book, please consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Armchair Mystic: Easing into Contemplative Prayer; A Praying Congregation: The Art of Teaching Spiritual Practice; and Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you recommend? We look forward to hearing from you.
In “A Time for Trust” (the August 29, 2011 Alban Weekly, excerpted and adapted from The Girlfriends’ Clergy Companion: Surviving and Thriving in Ministry), Amy Morgan notes that people out of seminary may be confused about their first call, take missteps to secure it, and find themselves “wondering in the first five years of ministry if a career as a day trader isn’t what God is really calling them to.”
Morgan goes on to say that surviving this “call process” often requires certain qualities, including T.R.U.S.T. These letters form an acronym that Morgan unpacks in the article, with the first “T” standing for “Talk to others about the churches you’re considering”; “R” standing for “Rock the interview” by participating in faithful dialogue; “U” standing for “Understand what you and the church really want” and expect; “S” standing for “Study the church” reports, website, history, and surrounding community; and the final “T” standing for “Take the call” if you discern God seeks that you do so.
The author invites readers to consider whether their gifts and skills will be appreciated and useful in a particular ministry setting; whether God might be calling them to grow as a pastor and a person here; and whether they will be able to minister effectively on a personal level.
What resources might be helpful for pastors going through the call process? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, we invite you to consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: The Competent Pastor: Skills and Self-Knowledge for Serving Well; “Faithful to the Call: Reflections on Excellence in Ministry“; and “Becoming a Pastor: Reflections on the Transition into Ministry.”
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources have you found helpful? We look forward to hearing from you.
“Listening for God’s Leadings” (the August 22, 2011 Alban Weekly, adapted from Donald Zimmer’s Leadership and Listening: Spiritual Foundations for Church Governance) asserts that church governing boards “need the emotional, relational, and spiritual space that corporate discernment offers so that they can move beyond existing attachments and perspectives and listen together in openness and obedience for God’s leadings.”
How can such space be opened up, particularly in a church board setting? Zimmer holds that a good place to start is with the Scriptures, which are “our common heritage and the foundation of our life together. The Scriptures tell us who God is, how God is at work in our world, and what God desires of us.”
Zimmer goes on to outline seven themes from Scripture which are most relevant to the processes and practices of discernment: that we are called to be servants, blessed by difference, the image of Christ in the world, gifted by the Holy Spirit, saved by grace through faith for good works, creatures who need Sabbath rest, and profoundly interrelated to one another and all of life.
Readers are advised to consider “in what ways might we…” incorporate these themes into both our individual lives and the life of our boards.
What resources might help congregations to begin practices of corporate discernment? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community; Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations; and Discerning Your Congregation’s Future: A Strategic and Spiritual Approach.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
“Changing Our Perspective” (the August 15, 2011 Alban Weekly article adapted from the Summer 2011 Congregations magazine article of the same name) invites urban congregations to think in fresh ways about the opportunities and challenges now facing them—especially if some of their members are still pining for the “glory days” of yesteryear.
Such fresh thinking may enable them to redefine success and to see that, in author Amy Butler’s words, “the gifts and potential of the urban ministry setting are numerous… bountiful…unique!”
Butler’s article offers a number of stories which put flesh on three key ideas she articulates: (1) that urban congregations “have a unique opportunity to be flexible”; (2) that urban congregations “also have the special gift of required intentionality”; and (3) that urban congregations often face “ongoing challenges related to material stewardship,” or the chance to think in new ways about using building facilities.
If you have not yet read the article, please do so now.
What resources might support urban congregations needing to shift their perspective about themselves, their identity, and the opportunities before them? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice; Spirit in the Cities: Searching for Soul in the Urban Landscape; and the Seminary Consortium for Christian Urban Pastoral Education.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
In “The Pastor and Pornography,” (the August 8, 2011 Alban Weekly), Mark Sundby and Susan Nienaber discuss the conflicted feelings and shame that surround the use of Internet pornography by pastors or other congregational leaders.
The authors also explain three reasons for taking pornography use seriously: (1) it’s a public health problem, and a contributing factor in more than half of divorces; (2) for numerous pastors, its use can become a part of day-to-day living, and damage relationships; and (3) the range of congregational responses can vary widely if a pastor is caught using it on a church computer.
If you have not yet read this article, please do so now—particularly if you wish to comment.
Resources related to this topic are listed at the end of the article. In addition, we suggest you consider the following items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: When a Congregation is Betrayed: Responding to Clergy Misconduct; and the free download from Baylor University, “Clergy Sexual Misconduct: Awareness and Prevention.”
What are your thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
In “Life after Governance Change,” (the August 1, 2011 Alban Weekly), Dan Hotchkiss notes that the “start-and-stop decision-making tempo” of many board governance processes has led more churches and synagogues to consider alternatives to the ways they’ve usually governed themselves. Sometimes the best examples of innovation have emerged when “someone, in despair of working through the formal structure, worked around it.”
Proposed changes to the way a church governs itself—or indeed, the way it worships or does other things—can trigger resistance. But Hotchkiss cites Ron Heifetz and Martin Linsky in noting that it usually isn’t the change which is being resisted, but the loss associated with that change.
The funny thing about loss, however, is that it can arise as well in the process of holding on to the status quo. In such instances, change can help to avoid loss. As Hotchkiss puts it, “When old modes of governance threaten to strangle what is precious in the congregation’s life, governance change becomes more thinkable.”
What resources can support congregations facing loss or seeking to implement change—particularly in governance? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Leadership Without Easy Answers; Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading; and Spiritlinking Leadership: Working through Resistance to Organizational Change.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
In “Hope and Ethnography” (the July 25, 2011 Alban Weekly, adapted from the book, Greenhouses of Hope: Congregations Growing Young Leaders Who Will Change the World), Dori Grinenko Baker invites pastors and other congregational leaders to become ethnographers—those who practice the “art of immersing oneself in a place long enough to hear its unique rhythms.” In particular, such leaders are invited to practice ethnography in relation to the spiritual life and aspirations of young people.
Baker phrases her invitation best, perhaps, when she says that “Even though you may be a leader in your congregation, you should learn to occasionally practice being an observer, listening closely to the people in your congregation, at times withholding your immediate response in order to slowly and carefully tease out a full description of another person’s way of seeing things.”
While such deep listening need not be in relation to everything that crosses a leader’s path, it can surely inform and enrich a leader’s understanding of the things that matter most—such as re-orienting young people away from “moralistic therapeutic deism” and toward “a more faithful living out of the gospel.”
What resources might support those seeking to practice an ethnographic “deep listening” in relation to young people? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, we invite you to consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: A Faith of Their Own: Stability and Change in the Religiosity of America’s Adolescents; The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships (Second Edition); and Practicing Discernment with Youth: A Transformative Youth Ministry Approach.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you recommend? We look forward to hearing from you.
In the July 18, 2011 Alban Weekly (“The Pathway of Simplicity,” excerpted and adapted from Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry), Bruce and Katherine Epperly remind pastors of the calling which drew them into ministry. That calling, say the authors, is for those “who have experienced the holy and show others, by their lives and ministries, how to experience holiness in their own lives.”
The Epperlys point out that such an experience requires a trust in God’s presence and a willingness to “listen prayerfully to Jesus’s pathway of simplicity.” Drawing on the passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus tells his listeners to relinquish worrying and “consider the lilies of the field,” the Epperlys emphasize that faithful, effective ministry is grounded in a simplicity of life that fosters “ongoing attentiveness to God’s vision in each moment.”
What resources might support simplicity of life, trust in God’s presence, and attentiveness to God’s vision? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these resources annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Discover the Narrow Path: A Guide to Spiritual Balance; Armchair Mystic: Easing into Contemplative Prayer; and Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.
