I started looking for a new car. It is an interesting journey. One question I ask involved reliability. I want to drive the vehicle for a long time. This means I am looking not only at first impressions or even cheapest price; I want the vehicle that has long haul credibility. I will accept fewer luxuries to gain greater reliability. Reliability is a quality of the Christian life...
We often look around for material on leadership that might inspire us our imagination. Reading Moses Pava helped me, in part because he used two words hardly ever used at the same time as the word leadership, namely, covenant and holiness.
Yesterday, we reflected on what happened in elders lives this past year. When they said yes to serving as elder, they considered the pros and cons, their schedules and abilities. They knew they faced challenges. But all things considered they accepted, as the form says, that this was the call of God on their lives. Then life happened...
As I woke up this morning, I was having imagined conversations with some people in the church and who were once members of the church. I wanted reasons for their actions. I was asking the question every young child asks: Why? For instance: why do you attend that other church? Why have you stopped attending church altogether?
The range of what we think or do Is limited by what we fail to notice...Failing to notice is a strategy we use to avoid truth that demands change. We all believe that we ought to love our neighbour. In fact most of us think we are doing alright in this regard. Of course we tend to surround ourselves with...
I believe that the work of the elders can be enhanced by deliberately using different processes in our meetings. Let me mention a few and I encourage others to add to the list.
As I was thinking about the sermons for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, it struck me (once again) that the story we tell was not intended to simply give us a wonderful celebration 2000 years later. Jesus came to bring change.
Wisdom for caregivers from nursing home residents.
Spring is slowly awakening my garden. We don’t plant much food. A little lettuce. Some beans. Still it is nourishment. In order for us to get the nourishment from this small plot, we need to tend the plot, ensure adequate water, and get rid of the weeds. It is neither instant nor effortless.
Often times the image of feeding is used to speak about preaching...
Over the last number of years I have come to the conclusion that we need to allow more chaos into the life of the church. Not the chaos that leads to violence, but the chaos that makes us open to the nudges of God.
My grandchildren have me looking as if for the first time once again. They see what I pass over. They are delighted with what I consider common. They hear in a fresh way. Observing them takes me out of my world and into theirs. Fresh ears and eyes that see and hear with wonder. It reminds me of what Jesus said: “unless you become like a child.”
How do we provide pastoral care? What should we say? What do we think?
In church council we are always concerned about vision in the life of the church. We are also concerned about building unity in our common life. This book addresses both. His vision is summarized as “engaging God, God’s people, community, and mission to the world”.
A name is mentioned. There is a collective hesitation. No one really wishes to speak. To open a conversation is to open the story of a mixed past.
Will we ever know Scripture well enough, pray faithfully enough, be wise enough? So how do we hear these words as a calling and an encouragement?
So I began to wonder what have been some of the best questions in the context of the elder’s work in the congregation. Leading the congregation in good conversations that create fresh consideration of the way we seek to live our lives faithful to God is vital to our call.
Sometimes by the time we get to pray we have already fretted and considered. By the time we come to God, our prayers reveal the solution to our crisis. God give me what I believe I need so that this moment will pass leaving me with the “appearance of dignity”.
Listening Groups have one purpose: to listen to God. In this document I present three conversations worth having. These conversations are about character, calling and community.
It is the question Jesus asked Peter. It is the question every member asks the elder.
When we become an elder, the tasks of the office loom before us. We will have to attend meetings, engage in church management, arrange visits with members, and take on leadership responsibilities. If you are a first time elder, these responsibilities can be overwhelming.
Strategies for elders to support members of the church to grow in faith and service in the Lord.
What else would you like to see in the Elders network? Please submit your ideas and suggestions.
This space is for you. Ask your question. Make your request. Wonder out loud. Start the conversations.
This sample letter can be used by an elder to assess the gifts of church members and their willingness for participation and involvement in caring for other members within their district
Sample form for record keeping of elder's visits to church members. This is designed ot be used as the first page of an elder's visitation log of visits to a church member.