Fifty-something Presbyterian pastor, Jan Edmiston chimes in on the young vs. old clergy smackdown: Several pastors seeking paid positions in the church are over age 65. Maybe they still have mortgages, or maybe they’ve used their savings to help their children, or maybe they’ve depleted their savings to pay medical bills. Several of those who... Continue Reading →
More About Young Clergy
Fifty-something Presbyterian pastor, Jan Edmiston chimes in on the young vs. old clergy smackdown: Several pastors seeking paid positions in the church are over age 65. Maybe they still have mortgages, or maybe they’ve used their savings to help their children, or maybe they’ve depleted their savings to pay medical bills. Several of those who... Continue Reading →
Christmas Sunday Sermons: Phoning It In
Alan Bevere is really indignant about the attitude some pastors have about Christmas this year since it falls on a Sunday: I have had conversations with a few pastors in the past few weeks who basically admitted that since worship attendance on Christmas Day and New Year's Day will likely be sparse, they are simply going... Continue Reading →
Thoughts About Young Clergy
Carol Howard Merritt has a post up about the young clergy crisis. Here's a bit of her post: Since I’ve been chairing a national Presbyterian Church (USA) committee on the Nature of the Church for the 21st century, I’ve been gaining a different perspective on many of the larger trends of our denomination. One thing... Continue Reading →
Notes from a Scrapper
I've been meaning to share this post by Carol Howard Merritt, but life has been busy and so I never did get around to it. But hearing about some fellow Disciples of Christ clergy who feel that they have no place in the church reminded me of it again. She uses the term "Scrappers" to... Continue Reading →
Three’s Company: A New Way of Being Church
Carol Howard Merritt has an interesting blog post about declining churches and ten ways for new churches to sprout. One of the thing that she focuses on is that many churches built buildings for the 1950s, when churches were incredibly full. But over the last few decades, many of these mainline Protestant churches have declined,... Continue Reading →
Repost: Gay, Emergent and Missional
From 2007.... In starting to make my way around the Emergent and Missional circles, I've started to notice two things especially about the Emergent movement: It tends to be really, really white. There is not a lot of talk on being gay. I will get back to topic number one another time, but I wanted... Continue Reading →
All Bankers Go To Heaven (Not)
A few days ago, I got an email from some person who didn't like the fact that I was gay and that the church I serve is okay with gay folk. The writer said something to the effect that I was basically hellbound and that I needed to ask God for forgiveness for being gay.... Continue Reading →
Retread: “This is Our Hope”
The following was originally posted on February 14, 2011. First Christian had its annual Anniversary Dinner yesterday, celebrating 134 years of ministry. I decided to make a video outlining what missions and ministries took place in the last year at church. Below is the result.
Retread: This Is Our Hope
The following was originally posted on February 14, 2011. First Christian had its annual Anniversary Dinner yesterday, celebrating 134 years of ministry. I decided to make a video outlining what missions and ministries took place in the last year at church. Below is the result.
The Clockwork Pastor 