Ministry in the Middle

As I write this, I am concluding a few weeks of paternity leave, after the birth of our second child.  The leave has allowed me to focus almost exclusively on my family for the past month, for which I am grateful. I believe strongly that paid family leave is a necessary part of professional ministry, allowing ministers to focus on their families immediately after a birth, adoption, death, or during a loved one's serious illness.  The demands of ministry sometimes compete with family time, and too often ministers feel pressure to choose one or the other.  Family leave not only supports ministers during challenging times, but also reminds congregations that being an active part of a family is an essential part of the minister's vocation too. Frankly, I think we create unhealthy expectations throughout the church for ministers and other leaders.  They have to show up  in specific situations, regardless of time of day or how much else is on their plate.  I ...

The current political climate has encouraged me to reflect upon how employers treat employees.  Certainly capitalism makes labor a commodity: the pressures of the market try to get the most labor for the cheapest cost.  Still, I believe that there are ethical considerations for how laborers should be treated.  This is particularly true when the church is involved.  We need to value the people who are serving as employees, not just the labor we want them to provide for our ministry.  Jesus would expect nothing less, as demonstrated by his teaching and example, which celebrated the value of each person. With such an outlook, the church should be one of the greatest places to work.  Unfortunately, many people do not have that experience.  There can be a number of complaints, including low pay, long hours, and sometimes unreasonable expectations (if the expectations are even explicitly stated). While the most obvious paid employees of the church are ...

Without question, one of the weirdest things that happens in my ministry is when someone in the church quotes me to others.  It is particularly weird when I find out that my words have been shared in a newsletter article or meeting beyond our congregation. As far as I know, it doesn't happen that much.  The few times that it has been mentioned to me, though, I have caught my breath, hoping that what they had remembered was something good and worthwhile, rather than the alternative.  Frankly, I desperately hope that I haven't led them in the wrong direction. I don't know what I expected when I was preparing for ministry.  I frequently quote things that I've learned from books, articles, and presentations, including from teachers I have had.   Given that much of my ministry is centered on public communication -- preaching, teaching, and writing -- I hope that what I am doing is valuable and nurturing for many people. Don't get me wrong.  I'm not a ...

The church, we are told, is shrinking.  Statistics suggest that overall American church membership is declining, sometimes drastically.  In most of our congregations, we see the decline.  There are fewer people in the pews and fewer people participating.  In most congregations, this becomes painfully obvious once a year when leaders begin to prepare the next year's budget and nominate the next year's officers.  Financial support of the church lags behind the expenses of the church, creating pressure to cut programs, cut outreach giving, or even cut staff time or positions.  There never seem to be many new options for officer position, forcing people to keep serving again and again... and again, and sometimes requiring people to serve in multiple capacities to keep programs going. In the season of planning, it is easy to lament that our church is too small.  If we just had a few more people and more reliable financial giving, things would be easier ...

Last week, the Pennsylvania attorney general released a grand jury report detailing credible accusations implicating more than 300 Roman Catholic priests in sexually abusing more than 1000 children since the 1940s.  As in other parts of the church, bishops and other church leaders protected the priests, downplaying and ignoring accusations of abuse and misconduct. This news provides more opportunities for outrage about people who should have accepted responsibility and done things differently.  Priests, those entrusted with sharing and teaching about the love of God and Jesus, perverting that message into a weapon for pursuing their own selfish desires through abuse and rape.  Church leaders, who were entrusted with holding priests to account for their behavior, but who instead protected their friends and colleagues behind a wall of silence and a tendency to simply move accused priests to other parishes.  Police and prosecutors who felt powerless to question the a...