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Some of you know that I just returned from spending a week in Cape Cod with my family. One of the best parts of the trip for me was spending time with my 2 year-old nephew, Sam. I have to say that being an aunt is one of the greatest joys in my life. Sam is so precious, so wonderful. One night, my mom...
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It's been forever since I've blogged - in the meantime I've moved from Franklin Lakes, NJ to Fayetteville, NY, to serve a church in East Syracuse, NY. I will hopefully write about my transition soon! But meanwhile, here's another great Dan *** post, called "Cranky Christians."...
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Today was my 2nd to last Sunday at Franklin Lakes UMC , and also my farewell party after worship. The congregation got me this gorgeous print of a work by He Qi , who has become one of my favorite artists with his beautiful pictures of scenes from the Old and New Testament. The choir also sang me a song...
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Finally getting back to Festival of Homiletics notes. Another standout was Craig Barnes , Presbyterian pastor and faculty at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I heard Barnes lecture and preach, and he was funny, pastoral (and grounded in pastoring, rather than some speakers that have been faculty only...
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I have a problem with Dan 's blog, United Methodeviations : his posts have too much content for me to process. I am constantly bookmarking his posts because they are harder to take in with a quick scan (like I give most of the blogs I read). So I bookmark his posts, and try to get back to them later...
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A couple of years ago, I wrote that the hardest thing in ministry was announcing to a congregation that you were moving on to a new appointment. I can now add a little bit to that: it's even harder to do when you're leaving quite a bit sooner than anyone (including yourself) anticipated, and...
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Deaths always seem to come in clusters. When I started at my first appointment in Oneida, I had several funerals right away, which were the first for the congregation in a while. At my appointment in Franklin Lakes, I've had fewer, thankfully. And in my time since leaving Oneida, to my knowledge...
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Last week, I attended another district resource day, this time with Lovett Weems as the guest speaker. You've probably heard of Weems around the connection because of his work with the Council of Bishops on the State of the Church Report and his work on Young Clergy in the UMC . I really enjoyed...
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How do you keep the/a Sabbath? How did you start your Sabbath practices? What were your Sabbath practices growing up? When/why did they change? If you had total control over your schedule and ample time, what would be your ideal way of spending Sabbath?
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How do you share announcements during worship? At the beginning? Just via bulletin or on screen? A different point in the service?
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In the interest of me actually blogging something, since I just am totally uninspired to write lately, I'm posting my basically unedited notes from today's District Resource Day with Bill Easum . The topic was “Leading Turnaround on the Road to Mission.” I read a little of Easum at Drew , but...
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One year ago, (on August 29th, to be exact) I moved to Franklin Lakes, NJ, to begin my second appointment. Today is the one year anniversary of the official beginning of my appointment here. In some ways, I can't believe I've already been here a year - the months have gone by so quickly. In other...
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What's your process for premarital counseling? Or what process did someone lead you through? What resources did you use? What would or wouldn't you recommend?
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It's that time of year again, where my Metho-nerdiness shines through: the 2008 Annual Conference Reports are up at umc.org. (Well, many of them are up anyway.) I've skimmed through all the posted reports and noticed some common themes, and as always, I like to check out the statistics for membership...
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As an add-on to my previous post , I have to share an example of empowering young people and young leaders that I heard just the other day. I was at an area clergy gathering, and one of the pastors who was there for the first time told us about a unique model of ministry at one of his previous churches...