Another Reason Why Change Is So Hard
Lately I’ve heard of several churches preparing to interview prospective pastors. I often think that I would like to be a fly on the wall of those interview rooms. I’m fiercely curious about the questions that search committees ask prospective hires and the questions these men ask those committees. Much of what is said—and perhaps more of what is left unsaid or unasked—will have profound implications for the church’s ministry for the...
The Day Three Pastors Died
Plane crashes occupy a strange place in our collective imagination. Musicians, politicians, actors, and other celebrities seem to die to a disproportionate degree in plane crashes. Crashes are almost exotic, by which I mean unusual or mysterious. How many times have you heard someone say you’re more likely to die in a car than in a plane? So we can safely say crashes are unusual. Furthermore, because the exact cause of crashes is so...
Revisiting “Is Technology Neutral?” Seven Years Later
Recently I was surprised by what another Forum contributor told me. I learned that “Is Technology Neutral?” an article I published on October 2011, was our highest viewed post ever. I was astonished. Other Forum articles have elicited more comments. Others have addressed topics of broader appeal. I’m even sure it wasn’t the best-written piece we’ve ever published! Why the interest, then? I wondered how general Internet searches might...
Faithful and Fractured: An Interview on the Clergy Health Crisis (Part II)
The first part of the interview posted earlier this week. Jackson: Jason, you poignantly note, “We go into ministry because we want to be part of Jesus’s saving lives and of his coming kingdom, which will renew all things. And then we can’t see how our jobs have anything to do with those things. Fill out these forms. Go to these meetings. Get gossiped about. Where’s the drama we sought? The life-changing, earth-restoring avalanche of...
Faithful and Fractured: An Interview on the Clergy Health Crisis (Part I)
Book titles often interest me; few arrest me. Such was the case this past fall when Baker Academic’s catalog arrived at my home and I saw this title: Faithful and Fractured: Responding to the Clergy Health Crisis (Baker Academic, 2018). It was co-authored by a medical researcher and a pastor-theologian. I knew it was a book I had to get. Having read it, I now see that it is a book that not just pastors need to read, but it is one that...
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