Every ministry has its mavericks. The maverick is the rebel within the system who thinks and acts radically different from everyone else but still doesn’t leave. In ranching terms, the maverick is the unbranded calf that regularly separates from the herd and doesn’t easily return to the fold but also doesn’t run off for good. Meeting Mavericks When we meet …
Recently, I was meeting with a young minister who is beginning his second year in his current ministry. We were reflecting on the whirlwind of his first year. Through the course of the year, he responded and reacted to the different voices, expectations, traditions, and possibilities that he both inherited from and brought into his context. It was a rich …
In Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo, young Hugo Cabret is orphaned after his father, a master clockmaker, passes away. Hugo is left on his own to navigate life, but it isn’t as though his father left him with nothing. Hugo carries on his father’s technical mind and passion for working on machines. It is through the lens of clock making …
Around the world, in churches big and small, ministry leaders are challenged by the growing reality that their churches are losing influence in their communities and losing the interest of their congregants. Over coffee or around conference tables these leaders are asking questions like – What are we missing? Who are we missing? What needs to change? How can we …
Sometime around 1410, Andrei Rublev painted an icon of the Trinity. The image depicts the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gathered around a table. As they are seated they are positioned with an openness to the viewer inviting each person who reflects on the image into the communal moment they are sharing together. Thomas Merton reminds us that “when we …
‘Collaborative’ is a particularly popular descriptor that excites ministry leaders today. Like its cousins ‘missional’ and ‘incarnational,’ it attempts to capture a unique temperament of the ministry enterprise. Namely, the desire to seek partnership in mission and values through the contribution of a number of uniquely different voices. But what are we saying and what are we doing in our …
On his album, “So Runs the World Away,” Americana folk singer Josh Ritter has a beautiful but tragic song entitled, “The Curse.” It is a story of an archeologist who uncovers a mummy in an anonymous tomb. Her presence lights a spark of life in the theretofore dead being. He falls in love with her at first sight. As the …
Every Thursday night a crowd gathers in a little place called Millers on the mall in downtown Charlottesville, VA for a Jazz experience unlike any other. The headliner is John D’earth. D’earth is a world renowned Jazz trumpeter, who has called Charlottesville home for more than 30 years. He is the Director of Jazz Performance at the Univeristy of Virginia …
No Call – No Connection There are many good reasons we plant new churches and develop new ministry efforts, such as: To serve marginalized and under-noticed folks in our community. To catch a wave of change moving into or out of our neighborhood. To respond to new generations with new priorities and needs. To pay attention to something we haven’t …
One of the most palatable tensions in any community of faith is between the past experiences of the community and the future vision for where the community “ought” to go. The arc of the scriptural narrative reveals that although things are not as they were created to be. In Christ, God is making all things new. Theologians have attempted to …