Tag Archives: ministers

The Coming Tidal Wave of Pastoral Departures

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive

by Laura Stephens-Reed, Clergy & Congregational Coach (www.laurastephensreed.com)

reprinted with the permission of the author

[Note: when I originally posted this piece on my blog, I realized that few ministers would feel free to share it themselves. If it resonates, I hope that judicatory leaders, laypeople, and others who support you might have passed it along on your behalf.]

There are many ways I could describe the past six months, but I’m going with “revealing.” The pandemic has clarified systemic issues related to a broken healthcare system, racial inequities, lack of leadership at almost every level (governmental and denominational), and inefficient infrastructure for responding to crises. Specifically, though, I am thinking about how all the shifts prompted by Covid-19 have uncovered how unsustainable ministry is for so many pastors in their current contexts.

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The Trouble With Technology

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive, Uncategorized, ,

Last week I received an article from a colleague entitled The Coming Tidal Wave of Pastoral Departures by Laura Stephens-Reed. The article can be found here and I commend it to your reading: https://tinyurl.com/y66f5gea

There is much to learn in the article, but one paragraph in particular stood out:

“Prior to the pandemic, a significant number of my clergy coachees and colleagues were working under unrealistic expectations, whether those came from their congregations or from their own internal “shoulds.” And then, mid-Lent, they had to change the ways they did nearly everything – and fast. They became not just preachers but tech experts with all that entails: recording, editing, sound mixing, lighting, inviting people to and teaching them how to participate in and managing online meetings, exploring the most accessible social media platforms, and monitoring cyber security.”

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“Put On Your Oxygen Mask First”: Self-Care During a Pandemic

By Blog, Christian Education Archive, Congregational Development Archive, , ,

“Put on your own oxygen mask first.”

If you have ever travelled on an airplane you know the root of this phrase. On an airplane it means that in an emergency you can’t physically care for others if you don’t care for yourself first.

In March I first addressed the issue of self-care, assuming we would be at this COVID thing for two or three weeks; Easter at the latest. Here we are, week twelve, having celebrated Maundy Thursday,  Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost and now Trinity Sunday all under social distancing. Tori’s and my supervisory committee have told us that we aren’t to travel until at least the end of September and I am mentally preparing for the fact that many of us will not be back into our churches until 2021 at the earliest and even then, worship will be dramatically different than it was.

So what does this all mean?

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Leadership in a Time of Great Change: A Call To Lead

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive, , ,

Over the past fourteen years as Regional Minister for Congregational Health, the workshop I have most often been asked to present is entitled, ‘Eldership as Spiritual Leadership’. In this workshop I encourage elders (ruling and teaching) to embrace their calling as spiritual and physical leaders of their communities of faith. This challenge is not always easily received.

In order for the call to leadership to make sense, we need to understand what leadership is. An easy way to understand leadership is to contrast it with management. Management guru, Peter Drucker, famously said,

“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right thing.”

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Thoughts, Especially Around Holy Week Worship and Communion

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive, , , , , ,

Greetings in the Lord’s name. We trust you are keeping well and safe in these strange, uncharted days. As we think about our Holy Week and Easter services of worship, we wonder, “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4) We hope we can be of help with a few thoughts, especially around communion.

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COVID-19 Thoughts, Especially Around Stewardship

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive, , , ,

Friends in Christ,

It has been quite a week! Already it seems like a month since the decision to close churches. I am grateful for the stories I am hearing of people who are going out of their way to reach out to each other, especially by phone or video. Likewise I have heard of at least two instances where people ran bible studies and/or worship on video only to discover that the group was twice as big as normal, in part because shut-in people could join in as well as people who no longer live in the area. It may be worth keeping this up even after the doors open again.

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ENCOURAGEMENT DURING COVID-19

By Blog, Christian Education Archive, Congregational Development Archive, WMS Archive, , , ,

Friends in Ministry,

In 2004, Tori and I were serving a congregation in Central Florida. That year, in about a month, we experienced three hurricanes; Charley, Frances and Jeanne. These past weeks have felt very much like that time. While social distancing was not an issue, isolation and fear were. Isolation as people were stuck in homes without power and impassable roads, and fear for family, jobs and shelter in the face of an overwhelming catastrophe.

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Covid-19 and Worship Decisions

By Blog, Congregational Development Archive, , , , , ,

Dear friends in the synod, today I have witnessed much confusion and concern about whether or not to cancel church tomorrow or in the coming weeks. I am aware of a number of congregations who have already cancelled and a few who are having worship tomorrow but not the two Sundays following. It seems like the majority are planning to continue. 

In our polity, it is difficult to find one person who can make this decision, I can’t make it either, however, I would like to offer a few thoughts.

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