Pastoral leadership

‘Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry’

In this excerpt, Beth Allison Barr follows a mother and daughter who both participated in ministry, but only one worked formally as a pastor.

By Beth Allison Barr Professor and author

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How do you care for federal workers losing their livelihoods and vocations?

Soup, a reserve fund and protests — these are some ways that a church in Atlanta is responding to families reliant on jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By David Lewicki Co-pastor, North Decatur Presbyterian Church

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The hard and surprisingly hopeful lessons for churches five years after COVID

Pastors share what they’ve learned about their congregations, about the work of the church and about themselves five years after the pandemic forced most to close their doors.

By Edie Gross Journalist

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Trusting the winds of God in leadership

Winds offer both assistance and resistance. Being open to them as direction from God can inform how we lead, writes a Chicago pastor.

By Frazlier L. Pope III Executive pastor, Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church

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Mariann Edgar Budde’s national prayer service homily falls within the prophetic tradition

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington preached to a nation at a crossroads with a call to faithful witness, writes a director of programs and grants for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.

By Mycal X. Brickhouse Director of programs and grants, Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

Image link to article: Mariann Edgar Budde’s national prayer service homily falls within the prophetic tradition

Is your church ready when things go right?

Congregations and their leaders are often conditioned for problems. A North Carolina pastor suggests that they also prepare for success.

By Bankole Akinbinu Senior Pastor, Baptist Grove Church

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An alternative to despair

In a season that can feel laden with moral panic and conscious apathy complicated by the illusion of innocence, two pastors invoke hope, courage and a commitment to justice as paths to transformation.

Jamar A. Boyd II Jason D. Thompson

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Jim Singleton: Why is it important to be an attentive leader?

Paying attention is the key to so many of the challenges in ministry, says a pastor and teacher.

Study reveals clergy leaders often lack adequate training in five key areas

Survey respondents identify skill sets they must develop for their complex roles.

By Shari Finnell Journalist

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When the church project doesn’t work out

After an effort to provide emergency shelter in their building proved unsustainable, some leaders of a church in Canada reflect on what went wrong.

By Sherwood Hines Writer

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Churches became one-stop shops at the height of COVID-19, but that is not sustainable

The pandemic pushed clergy into multiple new roles, and they responded. Now some of that work should be redirected to people better trained to do it, writes a director of grants for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.

By Victoria Atkinson White Director of Grants, Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

Image link to article: Churches became one-stop shops at the height of COVID-19, but that is not sustainable