Will I Be a Castaway In Ministry?
One of my favorite movies is the 2001 classic, “Cast Away,” starring Tom Hanks. Who wouldn’t love a movie where the best friend (or pastoral coach) is a volleyball named Wilson, right? Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a high-energy, driven, FedEx systems engineer who loves traveling the FedEx world and fixing it – it’s not just his job; it’s his vocation. He loves what he does every day and looks forward to a lifetime of doing...
The End of the Church?
Yes, you read correctly: the church world will end just 23 years from now - the year 2042. That’s what the current studies and literature are saying. You just have to know how to interpret the studies and read the literature. Actually, no, the studies do not say the church world will end in 23 years. But the literature does say that church world will have to radically shift by that time. Or hard world...
The Pastor’s Notebook
During my early ministry years I was privileged to serve under two lead pastors. These were most positive experiences for me and I learned a great deal from these godly men. I’m glad to say that I enjoyed close personal relationships with them as well. In teaching me about ministry, my pastors were willing to answer my questions about their philosophies and approaches. And because I was a minister of the Gospel, I had my own...
The American Holocaust
Editor’s Note: In January, the state of New York passed legislation permitting full-term abortion. The lighting of NYC buildings and the video of the Super Bowl style celebrations shocked many, even some in the pro-choice crowd who have advocated for “safe and rare” abortions. In the state of New York, a child can now legally be killed up to the moment of birth and left to die after live birth. When he signed the legislation, NY Governor Cuomo...
Coaching Deniers: 10 Life & Death Facts
At Journey Pastoral Coaching we focus first on the minister, second on the ministry; first on being and then on doing. Being leads to doing. Therefore, as we give our attention to building the minister, we naturally build the ministry, and we do so for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. This is pastoral coaching. Still, many are confused by pastoral coaching. Some reject it outright (even though they’ve had “coaches” all of their life in ministry). Let’s respectfully call them “coaching-deniers”:...
Journey’s Best Reads of 2018
As the year ends, we offer our list of favorite reads for 2018. This is not a list of books published in 2018, but books read in 2018 whatever the publishing year. If a book is on this list, I recommend you give it a read this coming year. In 2018 we read a number of good books, a few great books, some why-the-big-deal books, and a couple of why-was-this-ever-published books (partially). 2018 was another great...
Future Church: Young Ministers Predict the Future – Part II
This is the second in a two-part series on a recent Journey study in which we asked young ministers to predict the future of the church. The question we posed was a simple one: “What major changes do you see coming to the church? Time frame: the next 5 years.” Negative vs Postive Changes Respondents were asked to offer one to three changes, identifying each change as either “Positive” or “Negative.” No “Neutral” changes were...
Future Church: Young Ministers Predict the Future – Part I
How Did He Do THAT? I remember years ago sitting in a meeting room in Bled, Slovenia (see the picture) with a group of missionary pastors from across the Continent as our executive director talked to us about the future of Europe. In some detail he told us that Europe’s future would be determined and defined by demographics, economics and politics. He asked if we and our churches would be ready strategically and logistically to...
Church Makeover: Young Ministers Dream – Part TWO
In our most recent blog post we presented the results of a Journey survey in which we asked young ministers to identify the “magic wand” changes they would make in the church if they had the power to do so, the changes they see as most necessary and significant. In that post (October 15, 2018) we presented only the “headlines,” the single sentence statements they made. In this post we offer their explanations. In our...© [2015] — Journey Pastoral Coaching