Posts Categorized: Small church ministry

Barn Boots and Blessings

Someday is now Seeing the God dreams right in front of us by Donna Frischknecht Jackson   The Christmas tree is losing its needles and the cutout Santa cookies are beyond stale. Christmas 2017 is fast-becoming a memory. All eyes are now on 2018. That means our eyes are on the goals and dreams we… Read more »

Barn Boots and Blessings

This Christmas Eve, linger a bit  A little rural church basks in Christ’s light  by Donna Frischknecht Jackson   We had just finished singing Silent Night. The Christmas Eve service was soon to be over and I felt like a child who had just opened the last of her Christmas presents. I was still overjoyed,… Read more »

Barn Boots and Blessings

A different kind of Christmas card   Who is waiting to hear from you?    by Donna Frischknecht Jackson   On my desk sits an index card with the initial “R” written on it in blue marker. I have thrown this index card into the garbage at least three times so far and, so far,… Read more »

Barn Boots and Blessings

The Christmas prayer tree A rural church reaches out in an unexpected way by Donna Frischknecht Jackson   Silence fell upon the room. A woman at my table waved to the waitress to order another glass of wine. A good diversion on her part, I thought. Others around me glanced down at the meeting agenda,… Read more »

The Unglued Church

Whose fault is it? Blame has no place in the Kingdom of God By Susan Rothenberg  Whose fault is it? When a congregation reaches the end of its life, whose fault is it? A pastor who kept putting off retirement, and as he lost energy, so did the congregation? A music director who refused to play… Read more »

Unglued Church

Shake the dust off your feet When it’s time to move on in ministry By Mark Roth   British anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggested 20 years ago that most human beings’ social groups number about 150 people, which matches the typical size of ancient hunter-gatherer tribes. The idea behind the Dunbar number, as it came to… Read more »

Unglued Church

Long Illusions God’s miracles are all around us By Sarah Robbins   Sometimes it takes too long to be able to see what’s going on. I am an impatient person. Having something block my vision or distort what is really going on always feels like a big waste of time to me. I get annoyed…. Read more »

Unglued Church

At the end of the rope Caring for God’s legacy  By Susan Rothenberg As an adviser for the Unglued Church, a program in Pittsburgh Presbytery for help with church change, I encounter a lot of churches at the end of their rope. It’s a time in a church’s life when it’s important to emphasize the importance of… Read more »

TLC: Think like a Christian

Churches never die Transforming grump into gratitude  Jeffrey A. Schooley “Depressing” was the only observation from one of my elders after a recent session meeting. We had just reviewed demographic and sociological information from the remarkably helpful data aggregation web company, MissionInsite. The data revealed that much of our immediate community is “irreligious.” In fact, even… Read more »

Unglued church

Trusting in resurrection Accomplishing more together  By Sarah Robbins “My first call was not what I had imagined– and what a relief that turned out to be.” This is pretty close to the phrasing that I hear most pastors say when describing the beginning of their work as Ministers of Word and Sacrament – for… Read more »