Preaching to an empty church in the early days of the COVID crisis was jarring, to say the least. I knew the cameras were rolling but was anyone really watching? Losing my congregation was disheartening, even though we knew it wasn’t a permanent loss…at least not totally. Certainly, by now, it is clear church attendance […]
Category: Leadership
For our first message series of the new year, we’ve been looking at “thieves” of joy: things that threaten to steal our joy: things like worry, disappointment, fear, anger, rejection, and all the rest. The purpose of the series is to name those thieves and then identify strategies that will protect us and help us […]
What has become undeniably clear over the last months, and especially the last weeks, is that a return to pre-COVID church attendance is not happening anytime soon. We’ve discussed possible reasons why in previous posts. But what we didn’t completely anticipate was how the re-opening process would happen in fits and starts. In many places, […]
COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on the finances, operations, and sacramental life of churches throughout the world. But one disruption that has not been widely discussed is the disruption to our sense of time. Early on, all we could do was react to ever-changing guidelines and the uncertainty has only continued. Almost all of […]
We can all warmly welcome 2021, even as we agree we are happy to see 2020 go. For all of us, each in our own way, it was a difficult year. We had the rapid shut down of our lives, constantly unsure of what else would be taken away, daily navigating work and school, family […]
In some ways, the role of the local parish church has not changed through the current crisis. At a basic level, people are still looking for refuge from all the craziness of the world around us. We can be a place of stability and civility, a place of hope and help. In some ways the role […]
This year’s election has felt increasingly like a contest not so much of two politicians or parties but of competing visions for the future of the country. In each case, the other side is represented as an existential threat, a radical departure from life as we know it, and a sure step towards a bleak […]
They say in polite conversation to never discuss politics or religion. In my profession, I find it pretty difficult to stay away from the topic of religion. However, I have found it necessary to stay far away from the topic of politics, at least here in church. In fact, I do not talk politics in […]
This post is the third in a series of resources dedicated to providing a potential road-map through the current COVID-19 crisis for your parish. We’ll be sharing with you what we’re doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. But honestly, we’re making it up as we go along, just like you. As always, our only credential […]
Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 (NIV) In a time of such unprecedented crisis and cataclysmic change, everything looks unclear. Things we were so sure of last week – our schedules, our methods, our finances – have suddenly been thrown into a […]
