As the first year of intentional ministry comes to an end, I want to look back at the work you have accomplished,using the lens of the five developmental tasks of interim ministry. I’ll offer a bit of a peek forward as well.

Once upon a time there was a Germanic goddess of fertility named Eostre. Scholarship about Eostre is sparse and there are conflicting stories about her. Is her name linguistically related to the female hormone estrogen? Did she turn a colorful bird into a rabbit that laid colorful eggs?

As a minister, I try very hard to live in the present moment. I try to look for the positive in my surroundings and to be appreciative of all that the universe offers to me. So it is hard for me to confess that I am really,really sick of winter and I want spring to […]

“What are the expectations of membership?” I am often asked that question in one form or another. “What am I getting myself into if I join this congregation.?” Although the technical answer will vary from congregation to congregation depending on By-Laws and cultural norms, my answer is always the same.

I have been thinking lately about the Sondheim play Into the Woods. In this play familiar characters from fairy tales go off into the woods seeking fulfillment of a cherished wish. At the end of Act I they each get their wish, and ‘they all live happily ever after.’ Until Act II, when they discover […]

I am sitting at my dining room table watching the snow fall and thinking about the fast approaching new year. What does it hold for me? For you? For us together? So much of the New Year holiday is unhelpful and unhealthy. We make meaningless resolutions to eat less, exercise more, develop a spiritual practice, […]

On a sunny morning recently I was walking the labyrinth at the Sisters of Mercy retreat center in Madison. I was there to meet with my Spiritual Director; I arrived early enough for a meditative walk.

Several years ago I attended a class on visionary leadership. At one point we were shown a video that illustrated the traits of visionary leaders in well-known historical figures, including Christopher Columbus. As the sound track extolled Columbus’s bold vision, jaws around the room dropped. Afterward we sat stunned as the clueless workshop leader said, […]

I love autumn! I love the splendid colors of the leaves, the cool evenings and crisp days, the apples and pumpkins, the scurrying of squirrels and chipmunks. Robert Weston, in his meditation on autumn, writes, “In what the autumn colors say to me, turning from tired green to brilliant gold, scarlet and crimson, then maroon […]