Renewal leadership is a high-risk calling given that renewal demands change, change creates anxiety, anxiety fosters tension and tension in a community often becomes a leader’s undoing. Countless renewal leaders are told that a faith …
Renewal and the Practice of Missional Hospitality
Gibson CRC (located near Saugatuck, MI) recently served as a hospitality and warming station for the annual “Frostbite Marathon” that began on an early Sunday morning in Downtown Holland and finished at the Saugatuck State …
Renewal and Doing a Lot with a Little
A renewal challenge many congregations face is engaging in high impact ministry with limited resources. This challenge may become more acute as the dust settles in a post-pandemic and post-churched world. Fortunately, we follow a …
From Exhaustion to Exhilaration in 2022
It’s been a long season! When church gatherings were shuttered in March 2020 and everyone hyperventilated about getting on-line, the assumption was that everything would be back to normal by Easter (five short weeks in …
The Renewal Pastor In A Changing World
Eugene Peterson in WORKING THE ANGLES, highlights that a pastor’s traditional role is prayer, study of Scripture and spiritual formation. He rails against those who serve as shop keepers focused on administration rather than spiritual …
Renewal and Navigating the Stir
Many renewal-focused congregations are caught in the stir. The stir, as I label it, includes deeply felt convictions related to human sexuality, women’s leadership, various political persuasions, justice and mercy issues, even practices that maintain …
Renewal Through “With-Ness”
Most renewal pastors motivate members towards mission by reminding them of Jesus’ mandate to go and tell. In other words, it’s mission through witness. In this Advent season, perhaps we should consider another motivating missional …
Thinking About Quitting? Remember These Things
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research discovered that two out of three pastors named last year as the most difficult year of their ministry career. So, it is not surprising that Lifeway Research discovered that …
Renewal Through Reinvention
The pandemic is teaching us that survival depends on reinvention. One of my favorite reinvention stories (a pre-Pandemic story) is the tale of a mom-and-pop grocery store located a few blocks from my home. A …
