Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian pastor, but I believe that actually he was a Methodist deep down inside. Why do I say that? From my understanding of how he lived, I don’t know anyone who more fully lived out the concept of “prevenient grace.” Prevenient grace is the grace that goes before us, the grace that calls us into
“When Christ is squeezed from the Body of Christ by our own priorities and agenda as a congregation or through our busyness as leaders or disciples, what is left is little more than a corpse masquerading as a church.”
It is October, which for pastors is Clergy Appreciation Month. Recently I polled clergy on their experiences of Pastor Appreciation in the midst of ministry. The results managed to surprise me. I was curious to know answers to what I thought was a fairly straightforward, simple question: what’s one of the most meaningful gifts or gestures you received for Pastor
As a Mexican, I did not know I was a Hispanic, too. The term “Hispanic” refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries and, in the United States, it is a technical demographic label or distinction used to identify people from a Spanish-speaking origin. Since in Mexico the primary language is Spanish, the term “Hispanic” is not commonly used to identify Spanish-speaking
When change “just happens,” it never happens to move the organization’s goals forward.
Isn’t it true that life will not always turn out the way you want? Maybe you don’t get the promotion you think you deserve or you are struggling with your health. Maybe your marriage doesn’t turn out the way you imagined even though you feel you have worked hard for it and done everything you possibly can. The truth is that we
How do we know when an organization isn’t healthy?
Preachers tend to have favorite passages and topics for preaching and teaching. If you don’t preach from the Revised Common Lectionary each week, it can be easy to fall into predictable patterns that limit your congregation’s exposure to the full range of God’s Word. We all have blind spots, and it’s worth asking where we might be missing the opportunity
“More than just building a tower, the people of Babel wanted to build a reputation for themselves. They wanted others to recognize their intelligence and skill and to admire them. Abraham, on the other hand, didn’t seem that interested in making a name for himself. He was happy to follow God, to obey God’s calling, and to entrust his reputation
I wondered how hungry the man was to steal an egg salad sandwich from a convenience store. I also wondered how he would have reacted to the customer’s kindness. He left without knowing his debt was paid. He was free to go. The food belonged to him.
Leadership is a critical key to the success of an organization. John Maxwell explains, “Everything rises and falls on leadership…leadership determines the success of the organization.” If leadership is a key for an organization to thrive, Christian leadership is essential for the works of Christ being accomplished in the church and world. Thus, the essence of Christian leadership is its focus on what God is doing in
When we think about the story of Creation in the Christian faith, we typically do it within the context of Genesis, the story of the past and how things came to be. One may think this creating process was settled at the beginning of time, and that God transitioned from being an entrepreneur to a manager, or worse, a mere aloof supervisor. However, if we pay close
You and I are called to be personally engaged in making disciples of Jesus Christ.
It’s not a time to micromanage, but it is a time to glance at the big picture and identify potential trouble spots and retrain the growth to expand in the direction you’re aiming for.
You see, we must realize that organizations, and in this case the body of Christ, can only reflect the sum of the people who are part of them.
Limits that people try to put on women do not change the identity God has given them as ministers of the Gospel.
Now that the heat sparked from the light shed on Vice President Mike Pence’s personal rules of not attending cocktail parties without his wife and of not dining alone with women has dwindled, let’s take a few moments to reflect more evenly on the practice of personal rules and boundaries in opposite-sex professional relationships in the pastoral context. I do
This has led me to wrestle through the following notion – the times when the first two rules of Methodism – “do no harm” and “do good” seem to be at odds.
Don’t ask God to guide your footsteps if you’re not willing to move your feet.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. – Psalm 139:13-14 A couple of caution signs: Introversion and extroversion are too easily over-simplified. Lumping people exclusively into one or the other camp is to miss all the nuances
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