| | | | | | | | | | | | PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I sat in the pulpit on a recent Sunday, listening to our extraordinary choir singing J.J. Hairston's "You Deserve It." Their voices rose with the opening line of the gospel song, which promises everything to the Lord: "My hallelujah belongs to you."
I looked around and wondered, "Am I crazy for leaving?"
Six years ago, when I joined the ministerial staff of my current church home, I was told that no one leaves here. The consensus is that there's nowhere to go from here. This is the top.
My church could be considered the Disney World of the African Methodist Episcopal churches in my region. We have three locations, state-of-the-art facilities, a robust youth ministry, music ministry directors who are also recording artists, and a membership so large that I stopped counting once we grew beyond 12,000 people.
Like me, our members are well-educated and upwardly mobile. Many have moved to Prince George's County -- the nation's highest-income majority-black county -- for educational or career opportunities.
We're a regular stop for gospel artists, celebrities and politicians during their tours, promotions and campaigns. And our music and arts department puts on elaborate productions for Easter and Christmas.
Megachurches aren't an unusual phenomenon, but a congregation of this size is certainly an anomaly for the AME Church, where most worshipping communities range from 30 members to 700 members. A church that has the financial capacity to undertake any ministry initiative one could imagine is certainly exceptional for African Methodism.
And it's important to note that we don't preach the prosperity gospel people now associate with megachurches. This congregation was built on the biblical preaching and expressive worship of the black church tradition.
There is no church like my church. Yet I'm leaving the staff.
Read more from Natasha Jamison Gadson »
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| IDEAS THAT IMPACT: PASTORAL TRANSITION
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Faithful preaching declares that God speaks through change. God speaks as the congregation moves toward transition. The change itself may, in fact, be the way God speaks.
Read more from Craig A. Satterlee » |
Social media is ubiquitous, and it has changed -- and is changing -- the nature of ministry. It is even changing the way pastors make transitions between congregations.
Read more from Adam Walker Cleaveland »
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The vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London discusses three challenges leaders face during a transition and offers three ways to address them.
Read more from Sam Wells »
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| | UPCOMING ALBAN COURSE: PREACHING ADVENT |
Preaching Advent An Alban Online Short Course October 31 - November 18, 2016
Advent, the four-Sunday season preceding Christmas, is approaching rapidly. Because you may be looking for a little help in preparing to preach Advent this year, Alban is offering a three-week online short course that will provide you with new insights into Scripture and with specific ways to engage your congregation's imagination during this sacred season.
Learn more and register » |
| | HOW IS GOD AT WORK IN YOUR DAILY LIFE? |
Living Like They Believe A Duke Youth Academy and Faith & Leadership Curriculum
Explore the vocations, daily lives and redemption stories of four ordinary Christians in this set of free small group lesson plans. Choose from three four-session curriculum tracks -- each featuring films, Scripture study and practices -- to find the thematic focus that best meets the need of your group of high school youth, college students or adults. Download the curriculum » |
Saying Goodbye Edward A. White, Editor
Leaving a pastorate is hard on both congregation and pastor. Learn how to make this transition a growth experience for all. Written for congregations and pastors, Saying Goodbye, a classic from the Alban library, skillfully weaves accounts from clergy, laity, and educators of seven denominations with White's own insight as a former General Presbyter to create a resource for meaningful and healthy partings. The book includes examples of a "farewell" worship service and litany for closure of a ministry.
Learn more and order the book » |
Beginning Ministry Together: The Alban Handbook for Clergy Transitions Roy M. Oswald, James M. Heath, Ann W. Heath
This important Alban book is about the transition period between the announcement that one pastor is leaving and the time when another pastor is well settled. The message brought by Roy Oswald and colleagues Jim and Ann Heath is that this is not an impossible time to be survived only with a lot of expert help. Rather, even though the task is complex, committed congregational leaders can handle it --with the help of people who have been on this journey before. Oswald describes how clergy and congregations can better end and begin pastorates. He shows them how to say good-bye and discern their needs for the future -- how to use the open space between pastorates for evaluation and preparation for a new day.
Learn more and order the book » |
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