Ghana redefined my definition of Ministry. Now, I understand ministry not only as an opportunity to teach, but more so as an opportunity to learn. Ministry is no longer about “fixing” the problem or finding a new solution, but it is instead about helping to manage by making a sincere contribution. Ministry is now understood to me to be a time to be silent and to listen. Ministry to me is investing myself in my neighbor to the point of vulnerability-to know intimately the reality of their challenges and know deeply the source of their hope.
From of our 2010 Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
Ten of us went down to the historic Old South Church in Copley Square where we met a minister named Nancy. She told us how she spent hours lobbying the Massachusetts Legislature on Beacon Hill to support the rights of the un-housed...
The following is an original poem composed by 2010 Ministry Fellow Emmy R. Kegler for final night "coffeehouse" at our 2010 FTE Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
O Father O Mother O Maker Creator Almighty Uniter Redeemer and Light of the World
This is not painting a gloss on our skin But revealing the glow from within
We are the fountains of a new generation Now living out who we'll become We're splitting our hearts for illumination We know nothing but that we are loved
From of our 2010 Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
Today my roundtable group had our last meeting. I would not consider myself a very sentimental person, but I found myself a little upset about this meeting. Over the past few days, my group had become quite close. We spent our together each night reflecting on each group member’s call story and why each person believed that God had led him or her to this conference. Every story was very distinct from the next; however, these distinctions brought us together in ways that would normally take years to happen. Now that our final hours at the conference were approaching, I realized that I would probably not see some of my fellow conference participants again. Suddenly, I became a little sad that such a good thing was coming to an end.
From of our 2010 Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
Here is something of what we are called to do--to learn and to grapple with how to tell our stories, to sing our songs, with integrity and with vulnerability, in such a way that those we are in ministry with will find themselves responding with their own songs, their own stories. It's a scary call in so many ways. Our whole lives, our whole selves, are so full of foibles and failures, and the lives of our churches our no different. We spend--I spend--so much time crafting elaborate structures to hide my whole life from God (unsuccessfully, of course) and from my community (also, ultimately, unsuccessfully). Won't singing our whole lives destroy all of that carefully crafted deception?
From of our 2010 Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
A Baptist preacher once proclaimed that the Southern Baptist Convention was God’s last and only hope for saving the world. But if this fellowship, this beloved community, has shown me anything it is that God’s last and only hope does not lie in one denomination. It does not lie in our perception that we are more right than someone else. It does not lie in our capability to prove we are more biblical or less heretical than anyone else. Maybe God’s last and only hope lies in our ability to get along.
LIVE from our 2010 Leaders in Ministry Conference in Boston, MA
I sat near the door waiting in anxious anticipation for the creative time to begin and then I heard, “make sure the story of yourself is told in under two minutes.“
As I waded through the muddy waters of my own life and listened to the stories of my group I discovered how long two minutes was. It was long enough to be moved purposelessness to conviction, long enough to be transformed by what before seemed like lonely isolated incidents, it was long enough to move from the hay of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary. Two minutes was enough time to build a bond between two people who thought they had nothing in common.
Kim Hearn is our Director of Ministry Fellowships. She joined us in July 2006 after earning an M. Div. from...
