Over the past three Sunday nights, ministrieslab has been popping up at Transitions and leading a communion-based worship service. We knew we were responding to a need for a community who had no worship service on Sundays and who had limited mobility to attend church services, but we weren’t sure what would come out of our …
I’ve been asking the question, “What’s next?” throughout the Lenten season. I knew God was calling me to leave Emmanuel in capable hands and step into the darkness of the unknown. The unknown is not a comfortable place for me and my planning instincts. I’ve spent many sleepless nights wrestling with why I couldn’t see …
Recently, Baptist News posted an article that provided some key questions ministerial candidates should ask during the pastor search process. They were good important questions and in some cases tough questions, but as I read the article, what overwhelmed me were the questions that the author didn’t have to ask in the pastor search process. …
What White Males Don’t Have to Ask in the Pastor Search Process Read More »
I was recently being interviewed and in the course of our discussion, my interviewer remarked: “Well, you have gotten the reputation of talking about hot button issues, people usually don’t want to talk about.” I laughed, but after the interview was over I thought a little more earnestly about that statement. Why did I ask …
Mo Williems is one of our favorite authors and we are big Elephant and Piggie fans, but this is not one of our favorites because Waiting Is Not Easy! In the book Gerald is waiting for a surprise and Piggie has guaranteed it’s going to be a good surprise and that Gerald is going to …
It starts slowly. At first it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. It comes across as complimentary. They need you. They don’t know what they would do without you. They wait for you to make important decisions or even to get things started. Codependency is psychological state in which one party is dependent upon …
The Danger of Codependency Between Ministers and Churches Read More »
When the fragility of life comes and taps you on the shoulder in one unexpected diagnosis, gender doesn’t matter. When your marriage, your, family, or your career fall to pieces, gender doesn’t matter. When death and violence come and sit beside you in Bible study, gender doesn’t matter. When declining church membership and contributions overwhelm business …
This note fell out of my car yesterday. I found it in the parking lot as I was putting Ben back in the car and headed to Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship. It happened to fall into my path at a moment when I was thinking about the brief time I have with left with my Emmanuel …
As the news of my moving on from Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship in Lexington, SC has traveled, I have been confronted with even more people who want to know, “What’s next?” In our baptist tradition, we are used to pastors and ministers sharing with their congregations that they are moving on; however, when that news is …
Yesterday, I shared with Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship in Lexington, SC that we will be moving on after Easter. After a tearful reception following the morning service, the questions began to come in. Many of them were about whether we were moving or staying in the Columbia area. Most of them had the central theme of …
