Below are introductory comments for my D.Min. sudents entering our new program on contextual leadership:

Last week the director of a consortium of theological schools visited me for a consultation. In the course of our conversation I shared with him my “rant” on formation related to the under appreciated significance of context. My rant typically goes something like this:

“Formation is one of those concepts people in seminaries fall in love with, but rarely understand or know how to apply. My challenge to seminaries that fret overmuch over the matter of “formation of clergy” is to stop worrying and cease trying to do what they cannot accomplish. Seminaries are good about the formation of seminarians, churches form clergy.”

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I received an emal from a pastor asking about children’s sermons. He just accepted a call to a church at which he’ll need to deliver a children’s sermon as part of the worship service pastoral duties. I think that’s a great thing. And I appreciate his seeking counsel on how to do it well.

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In a recent conversation with a group of folks in theological education who were pondering the relationship between the academy and the Church I was asked what I thought the future of congregations would look like. My response was that I have no crystal ball and would be suspect of anyone who offered a definitive answer to that question. But apparently there is a robust cottage industry in prophetic proclamations, futurists, tarot card readers, fortune tellers and latter day channelers of Nostrodamus. So, I ventured that if I had a guess about the future of the church I could risk a prediction.

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Marty Canaday and Israel Galindo have a support blog for readers of Planning for Christian Education Formation (Chalice Press, 2010). You can visit the site here, read their author interview, and ask questions about applying the book in you context. You can visit the site here.

Congratulations to Dr. Bob Dibble, founding member of GRACE on the occasion of his twentieth year of ministry at River Road Church, Baptist.

It saddens me that with the passage of time the name Findley Edge is less known, much less his contribution to the crucial challenge of mobilizing “the laity” for active ministry. Edge was a theologian (and long time professor of practical theology) yet he could communicate so clearly and passionately to the person in the pew that he inspired thousands to find and pursue their personal ministries in the Kingdom.

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I’m just beginning to gear up to teach the educational philosophy course during J-term. It’s a course I enjoy teaching and one I think of critical importance in the training of “real educators” for the church. There is some frustration in holding the conviction that philosophy is critical to one’s effectiveness as an educator, and living into the pragmatic limitation of being able to teach only one educational philosophy course during a three week J-term. But sometimes one does the best one can with what one has (how’s that for a philosophy?).

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