by social@thebtscenter.org | Dec 5, 2019 | 21stCenturySpirituality, Bearings Review 2015, From Our Archives
This time of year marks the return of the “C&E” crowd to churches—the folks who appear at Christmas and Easter. I imagine that lots of clergy and regular congregants have mixed feelings about these seasonal prodigals. On the one hand, it’s pretty magical to have a...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Jun 18, 2015 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2015, Leadership
In the past decade, an increasing number of social entrepreneurs—individuals who feel called to make a difference in the world while earning a living doing it—have been establishing themselves. From mindful consultants to healers to savers of elephants and...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Jun 4, 2015 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2015
Elizabeth Drescher’s recent piece on “Bearings” asks the question: “What if we had the next great awakening . . . and everybody slept in?” As a church pastor, I’m beginning to wonder that, myself. There are times when being a mainline church pastor feels like being...
by social@thebtscenter.org | May 20, 2015 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2015
“One of the reasons that people need pastors is precisely because God is always present but usually not apparent.” – M. Craig Barnes In my Presbyterian faith tradition most pastors wear black preaching robes. I promise we don’t do it for comfort. Or looks (obviously)....
by social@thebtscenter.org | May 7, 2015 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2015
Can you hear it? It’s the sound of Mainline ministry leaders around the country breathing deep sighs of relief, patting themselves on the back, and smiling in self-congratulation in response to the recent news that what Millennials—that generation woefully absent from...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Apr 10, 2015 | Bearings Review 2015, DigitalMinistry
It was a snow day in 2004 when I started a blog. I wrote about my dog, but it didn’t take much shoveling to see that I was really writing about my loneliness as a small church pastor juggling her vocation and motherhood. After I pressed “publish,” I spent the rest of...
