For more information visit the Baptist Theological Seminary website.

An Episcopalian priest played golf regularly with the local Baptist minister and two of his members. The priest kept inviting the Baptists to visit one of his services until they were embarrassed at not having gone. So they committed to being good neighbors and picked a date to visit, but arrived late to the service.

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At a recent consultation with a school I once again encountered the dilemma faced by school leaders who lack a background in the field of education. This school has been in existence for ten years, well past the “make it or break it” point for a private school. They were at a point in their institutional development where they had the luxury of taking a breath and addressing educational issues that had been long ignored in the flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants phase. They had a new director and a new assistant director who were eager to see the school step up to a new level as an educational institution, but both lacked formal training in the field of education or educational administration.

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We’re just at the start of the new fall Christian Education year in our churches. But it will not be long before most resident Christian education staff and program leaders will begin to hear complaints about the curriculum. Most of those complaints will be along the lines of “It’s too hard to use,” “The kids don’t like it,” “I don’t like it,” etc. Admittedly, while whether one likes something or not does not necessarily have anything to do with whether it is effective, the pragmatic reality of having a volunteer corps of teachers means that one needs to give due attention to such complaints.

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As we gear up for a new academic year (where did the summer go?!) I thought we”d recycle some past educational blogs this week.

For some years I’ve been working with a group of teachers who have been motivated to improve their courses and their classroom performance. These teachers were in a teaching in-service seminar I gave some years ago (almost a decade ago!). It was one of those rare experiences when everything seemed to click: the right people in the same room at the same time sharing the same interest and serendipitously finding the right seminar. A small group from this seminar has continued to pursue their work of becoming excellent teachers, and it has been gratifying to see.

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Congratulations to Margaret Marcuson on the recognition of her recently released Leaders Who Last as the Book of The Year from Healthy Congregations. Well done, Margaret!

The current issue of the Leadership in Ministry Workshops newsletters is now available. In this issue:

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Here’s a second opportunity for all you bibliophiles to get a free book for your summer reading. Our contest prize is Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide, by James R. and Sarah M. Lewis (Cambridge 2009). The book claims to be the “first book-length study or religious schisms as a general phenomenon.”

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As I consult with leaders of organizations, including churches, in these anxious times, I’ve noticed something new. The new is a shift in focus on the part of leaders from personal to team. Leadership, by its nature, is an isolating enterprise. Leaders need to stand apart, sometimes they stand alone, and often leadership is a lonely state of being.

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Times of high anxiety tend to bring out reactivity. There’s no question we’re living in anxious times, and the increase in consultation phone calls from leaders dealing with staff and employee issues only confirms the obvious. I’m getting an increase in the number of cases of employees or church members “behaving badly” lately. One common lament among hapless leaders is, “I don’t understand how they can act that way!”

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