i’m pretty sure this leadership book won’t make it on the bestseller list
note: this is part of the monthly synchroblog. in honor of today’s election the topic was leadership. you can check out all the links below. * * * * * i don’t go to christian bookstores very often....
View Articleseeds matter.
i have a black thumb. like if anything green enters my house–plants, flowers, yes even cactuses, within a week or two they are completely dead. it is funny to me that i ended up with this imagery from...
View Articlethere are a lot of ways to pastor
“in his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. so if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. if your gift is...
View Articlekings.
yesterday was palm sunday. i love the easter story; in fact, this week is my very favorite week of the entire year. like advent & the anticipation of Jesus’ birth, i love the upside-downness of...
View Articlepower is not like pie.
friday night my amazing & wise & passionate friend pam hogeweide was at the refuge for a really fun event centered on her book unladylike: resisting the injustice of inequality in the church. a...
View Articlecharisma, fairy dust and our addiction to kings
last week we hosted a small gathering of co-pastors from 5 different communities/4 different states. it was a lovely, simple time centered on sharing the ups and downs of shared leadership and...
View Articleequality is a bumpy road (and sometimes it makes me want to stand on tables &...
i am coming upon my 10 year anniversary in full-time vocational ministry. january 1st of 2004 i went on a big church staff as the associate care pastor; the following year i became the adult ministry...
View Articlerock boats, upset apple carts, ruffle feathers. it’s worth it.
saturday was international women’s day. i wrote this post that morning but never got around to posting it so it’s going up today. i have written about it in the past–we just can’t stand by & the...
View Articlehealers, bridge-builders, and community cultivators
it was a great weekend at transform 2014 in san diego. it was lovely & inspiring hanging out with old friends & making some new ones, and on my middle-of-the-night-and-trying-to-stay-awake...
View Articlethe difference between “cultivating communities” and “building churches”
i originally wrote this post in 2010, and it’s part of down we go. but in the past couple of weeks i’ve had some interesting conversations that reminded me of it and i thought i’d pare it down and...
View Articlewhat if…
i was at a really lovely meeting a few weeks ago with a bunch of pastors, and it was wonderfully hopeful except for one thing–there were only three female pastors and a whole lot of white male ones,...
View Articlewomen, men & church: what hurts, what helps
Two fridays ago The Refuge hosted our first “Beyond Seminary: Moving Theology into Practice” gathering. Our amazing friend and seminary professor Dr. Deborah Loyd facilitated and we were challenged,...
View Articlesurvival of the fittest church
A few months ago I made a big plate of nachos for all of the kids. Within 10 minutes, they were devoured and I made a joke about how life around here is like “survival of the fittest.” The strongest...
View Articlesay something.
Oh, it’s not worth rocking the boat about. It’s not that big of a deal. They’re doing the best they can. They aren’t going to change anyway. I don’t want them to think bad of me. I don’t want them to...
View Articledifferent not divided.
One of the things I care the most about is creating spaces and places where people can have hard conversations about life and faith. It’s not the easiest task. And to be honest, it’s much simpler to...
View Articleequality matters.
“Are we still talking about women’s equality in the church? Really? In the year 2016?” Once in a while I have someone say that to me. The answer is always the same: “Yes, unfortunately, we still are.”...
View Articlefailure week.
I’ve got a few more weeks before I take my annual break-all-the-rules-of-successful-blogging summer sabbatical. I’m a bit behind this year but will be here for 2 more weeks and then gone until...
View Articleequality comes before mutuality.
A long while back a Christian blogger wrote a thoughtful response to something I had written about women’s equality in church leadership and said he’d like to hear more about “mutuality” and not just...
View Articlelifeway, power, and the cost of telling the truth.
In 2007, I co-authored a spiritual formation tool for evangelical women called Refresh. It was a pretty cool project for that long ago; the entire book was printed in full color, magazine-style, and...
View Article“making nice”: the call of the privileged
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. We’re 3 1/2 days out from one of the most traumatic elections in modern US history. It’s been...
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