The topic of leadership has come up a lot in the past week. We’ve not necessarily been talking about what makes GOOD leadership. Rather, just what is it and who does it?In the church, and in the wider culture, too, we think of leaders as those people who are out in...
OK. These kinds of conversations really make me angry. Not really the conversations – but the stories contained in them. As you know, I travel Iowa talking to adult leaders and young people in United Church of Christ congregations. Very frequently, the conversation...
Today I completed an online training dealing with the prevention of child sexual abuse in churches which is provided to churches and organizations insured by the United Church of Christ Insurance Board. Although I’ve done several trainings like this before, I found it...
A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending a conversation about a new congregationally based program at The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) in Atlanta, Georgia. I was among local church pastors, denominational leaders and executives of church-related...
I shouldn’t be surprised; it’s that time of the year. I’ve gotten scads of phone calls and emails from folks in the Iowa Conference UCC for the past several weeks asking my advice about curriculum for their upcoming confirmation classes.I don’t answer in the expected...