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Showing posts from April, 2009

Radical Hospitality

This is a summary / review of chapter one of " 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations ".  Christian hospitality is something many of us take for granted these days.  Certainly few of us think of it in terms of a fundamental orientation toward welcoming and including others.  By calling it "radical", Schnase is suggesting that it be rooted in the life of faithfulness and radiate toward others.  A radical shift means that it is outside of the norm.  It means that a new base line is established that orients all activities.  Most congregations would say that they are friendly, but do they exercise their welcome in such a way that it eventually puts them at risk?  What I mean by this is that most practices of evangelism and hospitality are inwardly focused.  They answer they question, "How can we make them join us?" or "How can we add to our ranks?" They idea of radical hospitality acknowledges the reality that any change in membership naturally create

Clergy Retreat

Today I am writing from an annual clergy retreat.  Seventeen friends from seminary and our 13 children from all over the country have converged in Nags Head, North Carolina for the week.  All of us have been in ministry for roughly 8-10 years.  We are Educators, Pastors, Associate Pastors, Campus Ministers, and Doctoral Candidates.  Our ages range from 30's to 50's, and we are equally balanced between men and women.  Our ethnic representation is about the same as the denomination (99% White, 1% Other).   Tonight's topic of discussion centers around whether or not a pastor should know what congregants give to the budget.  The topic initiated by one of our members reflecting on the comment of an older minister from his presbytery offered in a Pastor's lunch.  His primary reason was to determine the commitment of the membership.  The response has been varied and slightly heated.  Primarily the rebuttal is that it leaves us at risk of knowing information that creates person