Leadership
The Most Insidious Cult of Them All
Forget the Sunday afternoon door knockers with their magazines, or the mantra chanters who leap up and down in Swanston Street, or the duo cyclists in their suits and ties. When it comes to the cults, they are small fry. We have already been sucked in, comprehensively seduced by a cult that has wrought enormous […]
Pastoring the Powerful
It seems that there is no shortage of powerful people in our churches. In response to an earlier Ministry Perspective,’ many pastors disclosed their own struggles with those described as “TMs.”‘ Some even wondered if the paper had been written with specific people in their congregation in mind. Since it appeared that a nerve had […]
Music: Is There Any Chance of Harmony?
It is hard to find a congregation these days where the choice of music in worship is not an issue. The first signs of change appeared years ago when the green Baptist Hymn Book was replaced in numbers of our churches by alternative books. At about the same time the early editions of Scripture in […]
Part Time Ministry – It’s a Tough Call
Paul’s tent making business represents one of the earliest examples of bi-vocational ministry. Part time pastorates have been a crucial dimension of our church life here in Victoria throughout our history. With the number of churches opting for part time leadership increasing, this will remain so. There are some serious implications for pastors which need […]
Who’s in Charge Around Here?
When the disciples in a moment of unbridled ambition argued the toss about who would wear the stripes, they started a debate which still rages on. The twentieth century friends of Jesus still have it on their agenda and it is still causing pain to the body of Christ. The lust for control and power […]
Leadership Next
In Eddie Gibbs’ book Leadership Next, there’s a list where on page 57 he quotes Halan Cleveland’s eight attitudes indispensable to managing complexity (from Cleveland’s Nobody in Charge, San Francisco”: Jossey-Bass, 2002, p.119). – Lively intellectual curiosity; an interest in everything, because everything is related to everything else and what we are doing – Genuine […]
The Subtle Signs of Impending Conflict
One of the amazing phenomena in the life of the local congregation is the apparent ease with which conflict seems to sneak up out of the blue and catch everybody by surprise. It is all the more remarkable when it is realised that the signals of impending trauma will have been around for a while […]
In Defence of Little Old Ladies
Uncertainties about the value of pastoral visitation are sometimes expressed by busy ministers in the well worn declaration, “I do not have the time to have cups of tea with little old ladies.” Now what’s wrong with cups of tea and, more particularly, with little old ladies who apparently do not need active pastoral interest? […]
Baby Boomers – What Should Our Response Be?
These days every pastor probably has a dray load of books and articles on baby boomers. These products of the post war period have been variously described as self centred, consumer driven, highly mobile, not given to making long term commitments, distrustful of institutions and highly focussed when it comes to meeting their own needs. […]
MINORITIES
Welcome to the age of minorities! Small, highly organised groups of committed people are addressing single issues and wielding enormous political power. Greenies, freeway protesters, women’s libbers, homosexuals, dissident trade unions and all the rest have leant how to make their point with powerful and impressive results. Without making an assessment of the worth of […]
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