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Find Your Community: A Call to Ministers to Not Walk Alone
Ministry can be a lonely place. For those who carry the title ‘minister,’ this reality is not a surprise. When you spend your day-to-day work pouring much of what you have into other people, there is often little left over for your own existence. I have served as minister for…
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8 Realities for Creating Internships That Matter
Last week, a friend who works in an industry different from mine and I were talking about supervising interns. I’ve supervised graduate student interns for the last 8 years and we were discussing the best practices for making the internship experience a rewarding and educational one for both the intern…
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Why I’m An Advocate for Campbell University
I was recently asked to attend an advocacy event for my Alma mater. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so due to other events, but Campbell has been such a critical part of my development and career, that I wanted to still share why I still serve as an advocate…
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Engaging the “Other” Young Adults in Our Congregations
What if, in our journey to reach college-aged young adults, we’re missing the “other” young adults that are already in our midst– and who are ready to lead? Over the last 8 years, I have worked with college-aged young adults both in the church and on campus. Over that…
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The Pilgrimage from Graduate Sunday: 7 Ideas for Congregations to Stay Connected
Yesterday, in many churches across the nation, high school seniors donned their cap and gown and “crossed the stage” of our sanctuaries. The service framed by their achievement, the sermon charged their future, and the gifts celebrated that they’d made it to the end of one great journey, and to…
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At the Intersection of Death and Love | Reflections on Ash Wednesday
Today is an odd day. On the one hand, today is Ash Wednesday: a day we focus on the finality of death, the realization that our lives are short and headed toward an end. But, juxtaposed against that, is that today is also Valentine’s Day: a day we celebrate the…
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4 Misconceptions About Adopting from Foster Care
When we began our foster-to-adopt journey in 2015, we had a lot of questions- and misconceptions- of what the path ahead entailed. We’d heard the “horror stories,” and seen plenty of TV shows detailing the realities of the foster care system. There were a lot of things we thought we…
