This past weekend at NY Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church I was officially stationed as pastor at Copper Hill United Methodist Church for a seventh year. I am thankful to…
Tag: pastoral ministry
The Privilege of Mentoring
On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 7, 2018, my wife and I left right after services at Copper Hill Church and drove all afternoon to Canandaigua, New York to attend the ordination service of…
A wise article about church evaluation
One of the difficult things church leaders must do is evaluate how the local church is doing. It is not as easy as it sounds and our tendency as leaders is…
Nursing home visitation will be rewarded as a ministry to the least of these
A friend, Phil, in Kirkville wrote me that he was joining a ministry of nursing home visitation. I thought my comments to him, might be of encouragement to others too. So here…
Liturgy of pastoral transition
A blessed day at church What a wonderful pair of worship services this morning. Attendance was high (211) and excitement was higher as we sang from hearts that needed the reminder; I…
Thank you so much for pastor appreciation month
It’s been a great month This has been a great pastor appreciation month. My associate, Pastor Eric and I say thank you to all of you—so many kind words, gifts, food donations…
Why pastors should blog
http://www.heathmullikin.com/4-reasons-every-pastor-should-blog/ I recently read the above blog article by Heath Mullikin about why pastors should be bloggers. I totally agree with him. I like his reasons but I think I would…
Guiding congregational prayer
Over the last several weeks, there has been more than one occasion for our church to join in united prayer as a congregation in various different ways. Some of them have been…
How can pastoral ministry be healthier?
http://joshrhone.posterous.com/what-if-our-current-models-of-pastoral-leader Joining a conversation I have decided to join an important conversation about the long term viability of the current paradigm of pastoral ministry. Pastor Josh Rhone has asked a crucial question…
Reflections on a Very Significant Change in My Job over 30 Years.
I have been reflecting recently about how some key changes in our culture have affected pastoral work over the 30 years. Particularly, I have been documenting lately the decreasing number of natural…