January 8, 2018
As a pastor, have you earned enough pastoral capital to accomplish what you seek to do? In seminary, my leadership professor described the importance of building capital with parishioners. We learned that if the pastor made enough hospital calls, wrote thank you notes, officiated with grace and excellence at weddings and funerals, then she or…
April 4, 2017
The vitality of the relationship between clergy and the congregation is almost always an indicator of the degree to which a congregation is flourishing. In the best situations, the relationship between clergy and lay leaders is characterized by a particular kind of affection that is unique from other relationships. It includes respect, but it is…
June 7, 2016
Leadership is leading people to the place they’d go if they only knew how. This is the definition of leadership I learned from my friend Dr. James Rafferty. Such leadership happens in the small exchanges between people in hallways, on the phone or as the work day ends. Congregational leadership happens in these subtle connections…