Book review: Seeds for the Future, by Dale

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Opening this “seed catalog,” as author Bob Dale calls his book on organic church leadership (Seeds for the Future: Growing Organic Leaders for Living Churches. St. Louis, MO: Lake Hickory Resources, 2005), you are struck almost immediately by central themes of growth, cultivation, and numerous agricultural metaphors integral to this work. Dale takes the challenges of congregational leadership and lays out a path that pushes readers to evaluate themselves as church leaders and their church as faith communities. Continue reading →

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On ideology: two sides of the same coin

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Elections can provide endless entertainment, if you’re into that sort of thing. But there’s enough drama at all levels to provide a source of amusement for most people, not the least of which is to watch ideologues in action. Liberals and conservatives (political and religious) tend to provide the steadiest source of amusement and irk, if only because both camps seem to take themselves so seriously. Despite the content of their messages, they become two sides of the same coin. Continue reading →

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The pastor’s function as coach

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Israel Galindo

I’m often surprised at the disconnect that we clergy have from our congregation in several areas. One I see especially seems counterintuitive. We go to conferences to feed our own growth about spirituality and faith, and then fail to share those very things with our congregations. It seems that we somehow assume that the faith of our congregants, and the ways it needs to be nurtured, is somehow different from ours. Similarly, we get coaching to help us gain perspective, learn, and function better, and then we don’t see the connection that we should do likewise with our congregational leaders. Continue reading →

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Book review: The Equipping Church, by Mallory

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Pastor led churches often struggle with how to most effectively utilize the time and talents of their pastoral staff without creating burn-out and rapid clergy turnover. Sue Mallory’s book The Equipping Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) has provided a biblical sound option for churches in search of finding the right balance between pastor/ teacher and pastor/ burnout. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 2, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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Why a seminary M.Div. still matters

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Israel Galindo

These are anxious times for theological schools and seminaries, more so than normal, anyway. The plight of several seminaries (closings, downsizing, layoffs) has recently made the rounds in the religious press and newsmagazines. And talk about viability and relevance is lively among faculties, including questions about how long the shelf life of the classic M.Div. will be. Comments like these made by alumnus in response to a survey only serves to increase the angst of some professors:

“Taking Hebrew helped shape some of my thoughts and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, but other than that, I haven’t found it to be very useful in my week-in, week-out work with youth.” “I have never been asked a question about my Greek knowledge level. Luckily for me, there are Greek-English interlinears.”

Continue reading →

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It only takes a few of them

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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. Continue reading →

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Are you enforcing your church’s child protection policy?

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 25, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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Reading day (spirituality and faith)

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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: Continue reading →

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