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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At a recent conference on congregational leadership I was again struck by how the level of energy (anxiety?) in the room increased when the topic focused on change. This is natural, of course, since one of the critical functions of the leader in any system is bring about positive change on several levels. In fact, it is likely that the new leader in any system will enter with a mandate to make changes in the system–notwithstanding that any attempts of consequence to do so on the part of the leader will likely meet with resistence if not outright sabotage.

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