Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
It’s always been interesting to listen to Ethan’s chatter when he’s “alone.” We hear him chattering when he wakes up in the morning. Sometimes he rehearses his newest words. He went through a phase where he was counting things, so we’d hear him count. Of course, he often says, “Mommy” and “Daddy,” and sometimes the … Read more
A couple months ago, we wrote about becoming Provisional Elders in The United Methodist Church, which took place at Annual Conference last month. Over the course of the next two years, leading up to ordination as Full Elders, we’ll have some work to do. One part of the process is to work with a Covenant … Read more
I recently heard that the United States is currently the fifth largest mission field in the world (third in the English speaking world), which is discussed in this article at umc.org. That’s an incredible statement! People in the U.S. have as much (or more) access to the gospel of Jesus Christ than in other nations … Read more
While efficiency is not as important as effectiveness, efficiency is still pretty important. And it’s something I’m always trying to improve on (I’ve written posts on task management and task management 2.0). At its heart, efficiency is a matter of finding a system that works for you. There are no perfect systems because we’re all … Read more
Every family has their own unique challenges. Recently, I described the challenge we face in our home with two extremely fluid schedules and the goal of being more intentional about scheduling family/couple time. In this post, I’ll mention one tool we’ve been using for almost a year to manage our fluid schedules: Google Calendar. With … Read more
You’ve probably heard people talk about mentally/emotionally gearing up for the return to work near the end of their vacation. Maybe you’ve experienced it. I can’t speak for other professions or other types of work, but in ministry leadership, we don’t exactly get to lay down our call to ministry when we go on vacation. … Read more
Vacation isn’t just an opportunity to catch our breath, it’s also an important opportunity to recalibrate! When I think of recalibration, I think of recalibrating a battery (e.g., a laptop or cell phone battery) — occasionally, you need to fully drain it and then recharge it (at least, that’s how I understand it). Colors on … Read more
Our vacation, which started yesterday, is a time for catching our breath! That’s especially true for this vacation. We’ve been through a whirlwind in the last few years that included both of us completing a doctor of ministry program, adopting our first child from Korea, and moving. In fact, completing and defending our dissertations, going … Read more
In a recent post about bonding, I referred to an article at adoptivefamilies.com, which includes the following statement … Attachment and adoption seem inseparable to many parents. In fact, attachment is an ongoing process for all parents and children, one that generally takes from 10 and 14 months and continues to evolve over a child’s … Read more
In my last post, I blogged reflections from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Bishop Robert Schnase. In this post, I’ll share some practical ideas that are coming out of Centre Grove church council’s discussion of the reading. Earlier this week, we talked about what we’re currently doing in the area of faith development (including … Read more