Category: Thinking

  • Changing the rules of local church ministry, officially

    We are all comfortable with ordained clergy being appointed to a community with the local church as a “home base” of operations, of sorts. 1) What if we also considered that the laity might not be appointed as such, but they too are also assigned? There is a mandate to follow and that means that […]

  • Podcast: Your Calling vs. The Calling

  • Re-setting Solo Pastor Expectations

    This past week, I read an eye-opening piece by Derek Thompson called, “The Great Resignation is Accelerating.” (The Atlantic) We all knew that people were quitting their jobs. But, he brought out something further: Their job is just one of a whole list of things that people are quitting – a sign that people are rejecting the […]

  • Flexible Church for Flexible People

    Shortcut: People want to make their life more meaningful by GOING somewhere and are open to taking suggestions (aka being SENT). What’s your recommendation for them? This past week, at what has become THE conference of the hospitality industry (the Skift Global Forum), Brian Chesky, the CEO and Co-Founder of Airbnb, shared a new vision […]

  • Getting diversity through IKEA’s new gaming chair

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]IKEA’s newest chair is for video gamers. At least, that’s what they say in their promo video (below). 1) This matters to ministry because Ikea’s new line is an example of how to achieve diversity: multi-functionality. Take a good look. Their “khaki” employees and people are replaced with black and white talking heads. Their plush / textured interior decoration […]

  • The death of the job (Part Three)

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yesterday, I wrote this in Part Two: In its place is quite the opposite: the Church as an institution must devote itself to the individual. Then, the individual will build the structures necessary to bring about the kind of world that Jesus wanted. This is a shift from congregation to platform. Here’s a quick comparison of […]

  • The death of the job (Part Two)

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Yesterday… I ended Part One with this line: But, whatever we call it, the time has now come (if it is not long overdue) for us to wonder if the Church should continue to offer that at all, given that it does not seem to bring about the world that it says that it […]

  • The death of the job (Part One)

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There was recently published an amazing piece by Anna North on Vox called, “The death of the job,” in which there is the following key quote for ministry leadership: Meanwhile, for many Americans, work isn’t just something they do — it’s part of who they are. The idea that “you don’t get something for nothing” — that […]

  • The gap between church and calling

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Until now, the religious contract that the Church had with people was that, through participation in the Church as an institution their own life and the world could be a better place.  Devotion is what the Church demanded; transformation (via belonging, ritual, activism, etc.) is what it offered in return. What the decline of Mainline Protestantism signals to […]

  • When mission / vision retreats are good

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Have you ever been through a mission / vision retreat that went well? Somehow, in church leadership, we learned that we cannot succeed without a mission statement after a long retreat of many a poster papers. That really is not true.  However, there is a key purpose to a mission / vision retreat, especially in […]