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Theological education for a new age

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Treading carefully on a rippled and rifted sidewalk, I passed toothless pumpkins that grinned in the pre-dawn light. Once poured to provide a level and safe passage, the sidewalk now lies cracked and rolling from the pressure of unseen roots that have grown up from below. In the silence that comes to the city only on the day after Halloween, I breathed in the stillness of this neighborhood. Just moments earlier, Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” played on my commute to this out-of-the-way part of Portland, Oregon. Listening to chorus, “Woah, we’re half way there / Woah, livin’ on a prayer,” I thought to myself, “How true that is for many Christian communities in the Pacific Northwest!” And also for theological education. I paused before walking up the seven steps – passing more pumpkins and a sign extending welcome to all – to a grey brick house on the corner. At the top, I offered an anxious knock that came from one who was part pilgrim and part researcher. I entered to a fire on the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: theological education

PNCs, watch the TLAs! —  Searching for a call or seeking a pastor in the PC(USA)

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I am back in an active search for another position. It has been 20 years since I was in the call process and a lot has changed. One thing that has not changed is Presbyterians’ love of TLAs. It is baffling when a congregational search committee uses acronyms that refer to local programs. The congregation I’m leaving, for example, offers ASAP, the After School Activities Program. It’s a great program and is accurately named, but it is not helpful to refer to it only by its initials. Likewise, local Presbyterians know that “SLAP” stands for Synod of Lakes and Prairies. (Being on the SLAP permanent judicial commission sounds like a position of real authority!) In the search process there are only three TLAs whose meaning can be assumed: PIF (Personal Information Form, what candidates send out to churches), MIF (Ministry Information Form, the congregational equivalent of PIFs) and PNC (Pastoral Nominating Committee). All other sets of initials should be defined. TLA stands for … [Read more...]

A family systems approach to parking lot meetings

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I  recently Googled the term “parking lot meeting” and discovered something surprising. A number of business and communication instructors currently employ this term positively rather than pejoratively. They use the term to describe a listening technique by which the meeting’s leader addresses important sidebar issues that surface in the meeting – but are not on the official agenda – by placing such issues in a “parking space.” The leader assures those who raised these concerns that they will either be addressed later in that meeting or at a later date.  For years, family systems theorists have employed the term “parking lot meetings” in a more pernicious way. I now offer my definition of parking lot meetings from a family systems perspective:  “Parking lot meetings” refer to private conversations that take place either before or after an organization’s official meeting or event where select persons of similar opinions discuss concerns about that organization and/or its leaders … [Read more...]

Tagged With: family systems theory

Organizational imagination: The practical wisdom for communities in transition

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It all started with a sign. One year after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, located only a few miles away, found itself at an intersection. At the invitation of the congregation’s leaders, one of us was asked to guide them through a strategic visioning process. Through that process, the congregation identified three core values: community, welcome and diversity. Facing a racially-divided city and a volatile national conversation on issues of race and justice, Holy Communion could not help feeling that these core values were pushing against each other, if not altogether incompatible. This realization came in the form of a literal sign — or rather, a debate about signs. A racially diverse congregation (40 percent black, 50 percent white and 10 percent mixed or other ethnicity), the vestry was divided on whether or not to put a Black Lives Matter sign on the front of the church property. The white vestry members … [Read more...]

Leaves of the tree: A response to gun violence

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"And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:2) “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15) These haunting words bear witness to the pain of an exiled people, here the northern tribes to whom Rachel and her sons Joseph and Benjamin belonged. Jeremiah’s words, spoken on behalf of God, are the distilled heartbreak of a people whose lives are defined by loss and suffering. Rachel’s flowing tears fall on the soil of exile, soil that she does not know, soil that does not bear good fruit. She weeps for all that was lost: her home, her culture, her people, her way of life, all the sons and daughters taken far too young by the horrors of war and exile. Rachel weeps for home, where life was simple and tears were more often joyful than bitter. It was the bitter tears of mothers in Savannah, Georgia, who have lost … [Read more...]

Tagged With: gun violence

Addiction and recovery: Presbyterian congregations respond to opioid epidemic

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Robert Hedges, a Presbyterian minister who leads the Resurrection Power recovery ministry in Washington, Pennsylvania, describes the work he does as “the greatest show on earth. We have the privilege of working with people who want to start to get well. They come in, and they’re angry at God, and their eyes are glazed over because they’re stuck in that lifestyle” of drug and alcohol addiction. The men and women living at Resurrection Power’s four recovery houses attend 12-step meetings. For those who stick with it, “they start to stay clean because they want to stay clean, not because their probation officer is going to drug test them every week,” Hedges said. “It’s really exciting to see God at work, to see their understandings of God evolve. We just say we’re hanging on to God’s coat tails. … We get to see the miracles.” More and more, Presbyterians are coming face to face with the opioid epidemic – in their own communities, churches and families. Talk to Presbyterian pastors … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

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