Guess what? It’s my ordiversary! Eighteen years ago today I was ordained to the Christian ministry by the saints at Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia. In many ways that occasion feels like a lifetime ago. Since then my vocational journey has taken me through a range of roles, congregations, and even denominations. I am grateful for all of the experiences - even the ones you couldn’t pay me to repeat - that have brought me to the ways in which I now serve as a coach to clergy and congregations. In my coaching I use everything I’ve learned and all the strengths I’ve uncovered and honed.

And so I am choosing to celebrate my ordiversary by releasing my first-ever ebook, which is a guide for churches and leaders on how to dream, discern, and plan out of all that they have to be grateful for. Planning in the Small Church: Focusing on Gifts to Fulfill God’s Call is a quick, practical, and inexpensive (at $2.99) read that draws out all of the individual and collective, tangible and intangible gifts of a congregation and community in order to notice where God is at work and how God might be extending new invitations. The ebook starts with the formation of a team to help the church tell stories and gather data and goes all the way through the first steps in implementing new initiatives. Each step is grounded in worship and best practices.

Planning in the Small Church was written with congregations that have one clergyperson - whether that person is the sole staff member or supervises some part-time employees - in mind. That’s because I believe spiritually rich, deeply creative ministry is possible in those contexts, but there’s no budget (and often no need) for a consultant to come in and lead a visioning process. It’s also because smaller congregations can have a hard time refocusing from what they don’t have to all that they do, largely due to our misguided cultural and denominational defaults that bigger, that more, is better.

I am grateful for my calling. I am thankful for the call extended to you and your congregation as well. I hope Planning in the Small Church will help you celebrate your gifts, train you to notice God glimmers, and enable you to live out of abundance, hope, and joy.

I know. You're Zoomed out, and you have been for a while. And yet, most of these meetings have probably been with rotating groups of people or with fixed groups (such as your staff) for whom you've felt like you've had to show up as your best self. That's exhausting.

I want to offer something different - an ongoing small group with set participants in which you can bring your full self and real concerns and tap more deeply into your innovation and resourcefulness. These cohorts are intended to energize and empower you to lead and live well in our current reality. They will be:

Flexible in focus. The cohort will be geared toward the needs of the participants. (You can note some of those initial needs on the interest form.)

Facilitated to draw out and share your wisdom and strengths. The cohort is designed help you create the actions that will work for you and your context, on which you are the expert.

Intentionally ecumenical. Denominations can be small worlds, making it hard to know how much you can safely share. The cohort will be ecumenical so that you can feel free to be honest and so that you can learn how other denominations approach issues.

Mutually supportive. This cohort will not be a space to compete or call out but a place to encourage, get curious with, and gently challenge one another.

Cohorts will meet twice per month for an hour mid-June through mid-September (6 sessions), with the option to continue after those six sessions. There will be 4-5 participants per cohort, and the total cost will be $150 per participant ($125 for former/current coachees). We will gather by Zoom or Google Meet.

You can indicate your interest on this form, which will be open through June 8. I will then assemble the cohorts and contact participants to schedule meetings at times convenient for them. Once the cohort’s first gathering is set, I will send group information and a PayPal invoice.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Two weeks ago I offered a couple of webinars for search teams addressing the challenges of looking for a pastor during a pandemic. The responses were very positive. I received questions from several searching clergy, though, asking whether the content would be helpful for them as well. I welcomed them to participate - and then I began mulling whether a separate resource might be more useful.

As a result I have just released a 43-minute webinar providing searching pastors with pandemic-related questions that search teams are asking, questions for candidates to ask search teams, questions for candidates to ask themselves, new opportunities for telling one's story to search teams, new challenges for searching, and things to consider when starting a call during a new normal.

Access to the webinar is $10 and can be purchased here. (Note that I have also created a recording of the version for search teams, and it can be found here.)

I hope that these resources about the particular considerations the pandemic has prompted will be useful to you. I am available for coaching around these challenges as well, and you can schedule a free exploratory call here.

You hang up the phone or press “leave meeting” on Zoom after a great coaching call. You’re seeing your situation in a new way, and you’ve got some clarity about what you need to do next to reach your goal. Your heart feels light, and you are motivated to take the steps you designed for yourself.

Fast forward a week or two. Your to-do list is about to consume you. Your calendar looks like a rainbow has bled on it. You just want a nap. What happened to all that energy you had coming out of the coaching call?

Chances are, your insights and actions needed a bit more attention to lock them in. That’s why I have created a coaching call reflection form. Intended as a bookend to the coaching call preparation sheet, the questions on this form prompt coachees to write down what it is they want to carry forward from a coaching session. Boiling an hour-long conversation into the essential takeaways – and making connections between a single session and the overall arc of the coaching relationship – can solidify the learning and planning and provide a reference point when the glow of a coaching call fades.

Here are the questions contained in the coaching call reflection form:

• What insight did you gain in the coaching call that you would like to retain?

• What action steps did you design for yourself?

• What accountability (e.g., support, designated time) do you need to carry out those steps?

• What do you want me to follow up on in our next coaching call?

• How do your takeaways from today’s coaching call move you further toward your overall goal(s) for coaching?

Don’t let all the good work you did in a coaching session be for naught! You earned those perspective shifts and dug deep to come up with solid steps appropriate to you and your context. To download a Word version of the coaching call reflection form, go here.

“I don’t have enough time to do all the things.”

“I don’t have anything worth contributing.”

“Our congregation is so much smaller and grayer than it used to be.”

“We’re gonna have to send these church budget requests back to committees to be pared down, because our projected giving is down 10%.”

Do these sentiments sound familiar? They play in loops in individuals’ heads and reverberate through sanctuaries of all sizes. They are the product of scarcity thinking, of focusing on what we don’t have. The scarcity mindset is rampant in our culture, manifesting in the beliefs that we need to guard what we have and prepare for the worst possible scenario. And unfortunately, while we worship a God who created the universe out of a dark and formless void and follow a Savior who was all about opening up the law and the bounds of community, this thinking has trickled down into our churches. The result is that many of our people are afraid to dream and reach out, instead turning inward and wondering how long our congregations will be able to hold on.

The scarcity scourge is a huge barrier to growing our faith in and love of God. Luckily, the season focused on removing such obstacles to our discipleship is almost upon us, and I want to offer a resource that might help individuals and congregations note the abundance that God has blessed them with in the form of resources, talents, connections, hopes, and ministries. The calendar below gives a gratitude prompt for each day of Lent and the first day of Easter. (A printable PDF is available here.) Feel free to download and/or share it. I hope that those who use this calendar will talk with one another about the unexpected ways they have realized that God is at work in and around them.

I believe that the foundation for healthy mutual ministry is laid in the pre-covenanting conversations that clergy and congregations have with one another – namely, the search & call process. It’s a time of determining whether our strengths and purpose align with a church’s needs and mission. It’s a means of sussing out whether there’s a possibility of the two parties growing and serving together, of belonging to one another. It’s an imagining of what could be as minister and ministry setting leave behind what is known.

Because of its importance, this season of discernment can be at turns exhilarating, overwhelming, and downright frustrating for ministers looking for a great-fit position. Search teams move at different speeds, and some are more communicative than others. It can be hard to know how to present ourselves (on paper and in person) in compelling ways. We usually get gut-punched by “no” a few times before we can celebrate a “yes.” And even after a call has been extended, there are so many details to tend to – salary negotiations, leaving the current position gracefully, moving, starting the new position well.

It’s a lot. Sailing Uncertain Seas: A Workbook for Navigating the Search & Call Process is here to help. First published last year, I’ve strengthened some of the coaching questions and added six pages of content to the second edition, primarily around the end of the call process. Here’s what the workbook covers:

• How do I know when the time is right to make a move?

• What does a “good fit” position look like for me?

• How do I attend to gaps in the experience I have and the experience I must have?

• How do I get my materials in front of a search team?

• How do I tell my story to search teams?

• How do I prepare spiritually, mentally, and emotionally for interviews?

• What do I wear for interviews?

• How can I reflect on interview experiences in helpful ways?

• How do I get the real story on congregations I’m interested in?

• How do I deal with search team gaffes?

• How do I juggle different search timelines?

• How do I navigate searching while serving elsewhere?

• How do I navigate searching while not serving elsewhere?

• How do I make good use of a search team’s “no”?

• What else do I need to make a good decision if a call is extended?

• How do I negotiate compensation?

• How do I leave my current call well?

• How do I get off to a good start in my new call?

You can print off a PDF of the workbook and use the coaching questions within to prepare for each phase of your search.

If you’re looking to make a move, this 64-page guide is a great place to start. Click here to purchase it. (Note that a free copy of Sailing Uncertain Seas is included in a search & call coaching package. If you’re interested in learning more, go here to schedule an exploratory call.)

I am someone who dreams pretty intensely. Maybe it’s because I have a hard time turning off my mind at night. Or it could be that the podcast I have to listen to in order to quiet my brain plants wild notions in my head. Neither explanation accounts for a very detailed conversation I had last night with Nick Saban, who sought out my advice because his board chair was unwilling or unable to innovate. Luckily for Saban, my freshman roommate wandered by, and a couple of Tennessee grads tag-teamed a leadership strategy for the most powerful man in college football. (See what I mean? Vivid. And weird.)

Occasionally, though, I dream the seed of an actionable idea. Such was the case recently when I sleep-designed a resource for ministers. This weekly calendar with reflection prompts is aimed at bringing more intentionality to our lives. Each day has morning and evening coaching questions. In between, the days are divided into three blocks of time. Those blocks can be used to list appointments, to divvy up tasks, or to designate work and leisure time. (In the units of time approach, every day has three units: morning, afternoon, and evening. Full-time work is 10-12 units per week. Subscribers to this method usually recommend booking no more than 2-3 evening work commitments and taking 3-6 blocks off in a row for full rejuvenation per week.)

Below you will find a JPEG of this weekly calendar. Here is an 8.5 x 11″ grayscale PDF. I welcome you to download, print, use this resource. You are also encouraged to share it with others who might benefit.

Most congregations require an annual evaluation of the minister. This is a worthy requirement, but it must be framed and conducted well to be useful rather than (at best) frustrating or (at worst)counterproductive.  Below are some suggestions to get the most out of the process. (A PDF of this post, suitable for printing and sharing with your lay leaders, is available here.)

Make sure the right people are in the room. What body should conduct the review? Sometimes this information is outlined in the minister’s letter of covenant/call or in the congregational by-laws. If it isn’t, the group of lay leaders that works most closely with the minister (with input as appropriate from others) should facilitate this conversation.

Be clear about the purpose of the review. What does everyone involved hope to accomplish? The review will be an exercise in fruitlessness, maybe even frustration, if it’s being done merely to check off a box.

Frame the conversation in terms of mutual ministry. Ministry is collaborative, not performative. How are pastor and parish in this together? Where have we helped each other grow or made each other stronger this year? What do we need from one another in the coming year?

Set helpful metrics. What mile markers will tell us how well we are living into God’s call? (Having a functional mission statement makes these criteria much easier to establish.) The wrong metrics prompt focus on surface rather than substantive issues.

Look backward and forward. What have we noticed and what do we hope for? Examining – though not lingering in – the past can be a springboard for promising conversations about what lies ahead.

Welcome the opportunity to minister in the midst of the review. Framing the conversation in terms of mutual ministry allows the participants to check in with one another, not just as fellow constituents of the church but also as people.

Use feedforward for constructive feedback. How can we leverage difficulties into positive changes? Useful criticism starts with what we’ve learned and where we are now, then looks ahead to what we can do differently.

Agree on intervals and means for feedback through the year. Concerns and celebrations don’t need to wait until the formal review. What are the logical times of year for all parties to touch base with each other, and what’s the most helpful way to go about that?

Re-covenant as needed. What about the covenant we’ve been operating under needs to change? As shifts happen, intentional tweaks to how minister and congregation relate to each other need to be made.

Below are some questions that could be useful toward the ends named above.

This past year

At the beginning of last year, what did we believe God had called us to do and be together? In what ways did we live into that? What obstacles did we encounter, and how did we navigate them? What did we learn?

Where did we notice God at work most powerfully in our ministry together this past year? When were we most energized and engaged?

How have we grown as minister and congregation since the last review?

As individuals, how are we doing spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically?

This coming year

What do we believe God is calling us to do together in the coming year? What are some first steps in living toward that vision? What obstacles do we anticipate?

How can we create even more space for the Spirit to move in, among, and through us this year?

What changes do we need to make to address obstacles that remain from last year or that we anticipate for the coming year? What resources and leadership do we need to overcome these challenges?

What are our self-care plans for the coming year? How can we support and hold each other accountable?

In what areas do we want to grow as minister/disciples? How might we go about that? How can we support and hold one another accountable?

Specifically for the minister

How well does your position description match what you actually do? What do you need to stop doing? What needs to be updated in your position description to make it more accurate?

How well does your compensation align with your needs and responsibilities? What adjustments need to be considered?

Loose ends

Coming out of this conversation, what follow-up is needed? Who will do it, and by when?

Which aspects of this conversation need to remain confidential? How do we define confidential?

Over the course of fifteen years in ministry, I have observed the search process from a number of angles: candidate, search team member, interim minister, coach, and colleague. I’ve noted that there are many places where a search can go off the rails. Here are a few outtakes from my (lengthy) personal blooper reel:

• I was offered compensation that was barely enough to cover groceries while the church was patting itself on the back for extending a call to a woman.

• I went on an out-of-state, in-person interview for which I was offered no travel expense reimbursement.

• I was rejected by a search team, then called by the senior pastor at that church to come in for a 1-on-1 interview. (He had no clue that I’d been released from the process.)

• I was given a 5-page job description that would have taken about 80 hours per week to fulfill.

• I was BCCed on a form email releasing me from a search process for which I had been courted.

• And, the grand prize winner: I was held hostage during a candidating weekend in a family’s living room while the husband/dad grilled me about my stance on same-sex marriage.

These tales, plus those from ministry colleagues, are what led me to develop a congregational search framework that is rooted in hospitality.

Despite all the bizarre things search teams do, however, candidates have more means of influencing search processes than they often realize. That is why I have created Sailing Uncertain Seas: A Workbook for Navigating the Search & Call Process. This 58-page workbook, built from search & call webinars I have offered over the last year, coaching conversations I have had with ministers in active searches, the research for my search framework, and my own experiences, is a comprehensive resource for the Christian clergyperson seeking a new congregational ministry position. Each section offers tips and reflection questions with ample space to respond. The workbook covers the following topics:

• How do I know when the time is right to make a move?

• What does a “good fit” position look like for me?

• How do I attend to gaps in the experience I have and the experience I must have?

• How do I get my materials in front of a search team?

• How do I tell my story to search teams?

• How do I prepare spiritually, mentally, and emotionally for interviews?

• What do I wear for interviews?

• How can I reflect on interview experiences in helpful ways?

• How do I get the real story on congregations I’m interested in?

• How do I deal with search team gaffes?

• How do I juggle different search timelines?

• How do I navigate searching while serving elsewhere?

• How do I navigate searching while not serving elsewhere?

• How do I make good use of a search team’s “no”?

• What else do I need to make a good decision if a call is extended?

• How do I negotiate compensation?

• How do I leave my current call well?

• How do I get off to a good start in my new call?

The workbook concludes with links to additional resources.

Are you a clergyperson who would benefit from tips & reflection questions for every step of your search? If so, this workbook will be well worth your investment. Click here to buy.

Growing up Southern Baptist, I did not observe liturgical seasons. (To be fair, I did not know such seasons existed, at least in the Protestant world.) When I was introduced to them in seminary, corporate worship and my personal devotional life became more layered and more nourishing to me than when my high holy days had consisted only of Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Homecoming, and the Fourth of July.

I particularly love Advent, with its emphasis on waiting and on faithfulness in the face of great risk. The candles in the Advent wreath illuminate our way to the manger, guiding us to consider love, hope, joy, and peace in the midst of our current circumstances. Each of these themes is so rich that it deserves attention for more than one hour per week. For this reason I have created a calendar of daily reflection questions to prompt deeper engagement with these foundations of faith. The calendar is available as a copier-friendly PDF, a more colorful PDF, and a JPG (click below to download). Feel free to share it on social media, print and distribute it, or use it as your next newsletter article.

Sometimes I wish All Saints’ Day could be more than, well, one day. Our lives are shaped by so many people who have gone before, whether we knew them personally or not. I think we could all benefit from reflecting on their influence and considering what parts of their legacies to carry forward.

Since All Saints’ Day is November 1, and since we are already inclined toward thanks-living during November, I have put together a month-long prayer calendar with daily prompts to remember a departed saint whose impact has been significant. This calendar is available as a copier-friendly PDF and as a Canva PDF. Feel free to share the calendar on social media, print it for your church members or yourself, or use it as your November newsletter article.

You’ve spent months planning a ministry or one-off event. When the time comes for implementation, your heart is excited (and maybe a little nervous) and your brain is fried. Once this all-consuming project is in the rearview, your body is ready to hibernate. You stick all your post-its in a folder and dump all your virtual outlines in your Dropbox and ask, “What’s next?”

[Record scratch.]

How do you know what’s next if you haven’t taken the opportunity to consider what you’ve just done?

When fatigue sets in, it’s tough to name our criteria for assessing the fruitfulness of ministry. Yet, as CPE taught us, action-reflection-action is what keeps us growing as clergy and prevents us from offering a random assortment of programs that don’t build on one another.

I offer to you, then, this downloadable event debrief form. (It’s in Word format so you can keep digital copies of your responses.) It is designed to help you capture essential details and think theologically about how the event served your congregation’s mission. Please use it, share it, and let me know what tweaks to it you would recommend.

Most self-care is pretty fun. (I don’t know about you, but saddling up in the stirrups at the OBGYN’s office and trying to answer the dental hygienist’s questions while she stabs my gums aren’t really my idea of thrill rides.) Talking about self-care isn’t always that pleasant, though, because we can begin to realize how much we’ve been neglecting our health or our relationships and we often start stressing about what our church members will say if we leave the office at 3:00 on the Thursday of a 55-hour work week. That kind of thinking can sap some of the excitement over a night out with friends. (Kind of defeats the purpose of self-care, eh?)

I want to make reflecting about our self-care practices enjoyable! To that end I give you self-care bingo. Ten different PDF bingo cards are available for download here. Use them however you like, but here are a few suggestions:

• Play a traditional game of bingo at a clergy gathering. Cut up one of the grids into 25 cards, shuffle the cards, and have a caller shout out one self-care action at a time. Offer a prize to the first person to get a BINGO.

• Use the bingo cards for a get-to-know-you activity. If you’re at a gathering of ministers who don’t know each other well, give each person a bingo card and a pen. Ask people to mingle and find someone who has completed one of the self-care actions in the last week. Have the person initial that square and tell a brief story related to the self-care action.

• Create an ongoing self-care challenge. Distribute the bingo cards among your peers, then go about your week. See who can get a bingo first by completing five adjacent self-care actions.

Comment to let me know how you used this resource…er, game!

Just before New Year’s Day I published a one month calendar of prayer prompts. The thought on the timing was that many folks commit (or recommit) to growing spiritually with the turning of the calendar. But May is also a transition point for many – warmer weather, the end of the school year, the end of the program year in churches – which can lead to changes in spiritual disciplines. I am thus posting the calendar again. I hope you find it useful, and I welcome you to share it. (Here is the print-friendly PDF version.)

My son is 2 1/2 years old, which means this will be my fourth Advent as a mom (or mom-in-the-making). As the lectionary takes us through the events leading up to and following Jesus’ birth, I will liturgically relive all the feels of the pregnancy and newborn stages: intense fear, hope, joy, love, the desire to share my very self with others, and the realization of how much help I need. It strikes me that these emotions overlap somewhat with the traditional themes of Advent, so I have used them to create a calendar of prayer prompts for Advent, Christmas, and the Feast of the Epiphany. While I used my experience as a mom to structure the calendar, the prompts are applicable to us all.

You are encouraged to print and/or share the calendar. The JPEG is below, and you can find a more printer-friendly PDF here.

There are times when the future seems so murky – or so desolate – that we are utterly unsure what to do next. For many in the United States, this is one of those times.

There are no rewind, pause, or fast forward functions available to us. We can only press play and allow life to unfold. For times such as these, I offer some questions for reflection. They are intended to help us gain new awareness, focus our commitments, and make action plans for leadership and for self-care. Intentionality is our friend when chaos is afoot.

You are welcome to share the image above and/or to print the PDF version available here.

Time and again, questions about how to navigate conflict pop up in coaching. (I have some theories about why conflict management has become such a huge time and energy suck in vocational ministry, but those hypotheses are not the subject of this post.) Building upon an earlier article, I have put together a list of questions to mull when conflict arises. I hope you find them useful, and if you do, please share! A printable PDF is available here.

Lent is the season for spiritual spring cleaning. As we journey to the foot of the cross, we shed (with God’s help) the things that keep us from being closer to God and to one another. On Easter we celebrate the redemption of our lives together in Christ.

It is important to engage in spiritual disciplines that help us acknowledge and remove barriers to bonds on a personal level. But I think it’s just as critical to discern relationship distractions and oversights on a communal level. Where do we particularly need help as a church so that we can fully join with other parts of Christ’s body in carrying out God’s call? This calendar contains a season full of prayer prompts to orient congregations toward renewed cohesiveness, health, and missional focus. A grayscale PDF is available here.