I will start by saying that I found R. Paul Steven’s book The Equipper’s Guide to Every-Member Ministry (Regent College Publishing, 1992) to be every practical. I also found myself wondering how different churches would look if the things in this book were applied in the widespread congregations across the country. Dividing the book into eight chapters Stevens takes on the challenge of moving our current church culture forward by examining different areas in which the whole congregation can get involved in living out their biblical call to be ministers.

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Forced terminations of clergy remains one of the most difficult, and often tragic, issues for congregations. A congregation can take years to recover from the forced termination o a pastor—and so also for the pastor. A single episode can become a nodal event that shapes a congregation’s culture for years. A series of these can put a congregation on the downslide toward dysfunction or extinction. And when a congregation gets the reputation for “eating up clergy” they’ll tend to have difficulty attracting mature pastoral leaders, the very kind who can get them back on the road toward health and relevance.

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It’s hard to imagine but there are still churches that have no child protection policies in place. That’s just a tragedy waiting to happen. One related issue is that many congregations have adopted child protection policies but fail to ensure oversight for compliance. In the press of circumstances it’s often easier to lean toward what is convenient rather than what is expedient.

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On a recent trip to my local library, I checked out Suze Orman’s The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom in an effort to better learn about investing. So, I opened the book and started to read; the first chapter had nothing to do with how to budget, save, invest, etc. Instead it was about family systems!

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Once a month I try to take a reading day at the library, either at my local neighborhood library or the seminary library across campus. Most of my reading on that day consists of pulling journals and periodicals off the shelf to catch up on the most current writing and thinking on areas of interest.

Here are periodicals I’ve found worth consulting to keep up in the area of spirituality and faith:

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For a recent course we invited several guest speakers visit the class and share their experiences and thoughts about ministry. After each visit students in the class posted on the course website “Best Quotes” they heard in the presentations.

Here are some “best quotes” from our guests that the students posted:

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Previously we shared some thoughts from Lynn Turner, Associate Pastor of Youth, Career, and Discipleship at the First Baptist Church of Richmond, VA. We asked Lynn to share her thoughts about how to success in ministry with seminarians in my course on “Thriving and Succeeding as a Congregational Ministry Associate.” Here are her thoughts about “The Five ‘Must Do’ Things for Ministry Staff Success”:

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I recently led another parenting workshop for a group of suburban parents. I’ve been doing this workshop for about fifteen years and it’s gotten to the point that I know when to pause to wait for specific questions. No matter the city or the crowd, when I pause at certain points I can anticipate the questions the parents in the room will ask. This time it was no different. At a certain point in the presentation I just paused and waited. A woman raised her hand and asked the question I anticipated. It’s an interesting phenomenon.

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