The Rev. Thomas C. Knutson, pastor of First Ev. Lutheran Church, Harvey, a founder of Let’s Talk, died on September 18, 2013 of pancreatic cancer. Pr. Knutson served as Chairman of the Editorial Council for a decade and a half from the first issue at Epiphany 1996, through the years when the journal was a […]
As I See It: The Pastor as Projector of a Worldview
This issue of Let’s Talk is devoted to leadership in the Church. There is a natural temptation to look to models of leadership from social institutions because the Church is a society in the world that operates according to social, political, and economic “laws.” Pastoral leaders can be taught leadership skills that come out of […]
On The Way: Tell Me, Muse, of the Pastor of Many Ways
It is a little after 2 p.m. on a Wednesday during Lent as I write. Since arriving in the office at 9 a.m., I have: prayed the office of readings from the iBreviary app on my phone, revised the prayers of the people for this weekend’s services, tried to help arrange for a car payment […]
Urban Acacia: An Affiliated Mission Community That Bridges the Gaps
It is a truism that we teach all of our kids in this popular Church nursery rhyme, Here is the Church and Here is the steeple. Open it up, and Here are all the… People. Churches have people in them. Second only to steeples, churches are identified by the people inside of them. People gathered […]
Next Level Leadership and Our Move to Multisite
Background My wife, Carol, and I are both second-career pastors. When we started out in pastoral ministry in our early 40s, we found ourselves leaning heavily towards a model of Pastor as Leader. Like many others who were entering ministry at the turn of the millennium, we found ourselves looking at first-call opportunities in churches […]
Mentoring in Family Ministry
Who are you investing in? This question hangs directly above my computer screen in my office at Faith Lutheran Church. My call is not to the programming of Family Ministry but to the people. It reminds me not to let the relationships get lost amid all the curricula, details, e-mail reminders, and newsletter articles. I […]
Leading in a New Call
My second call process was very different from my first call process. I was a little less naïve, but I hope not too cynical. There was the tension of being present to the congregation who doesn’t know you’re leaving and the unknown of a new congregation. And then there’s the pressure of living up to […]
Embracing Relationship-Driven Ministry: A Seminary Student Reflects on Intentional Impact
At the beginning of my junior year of high school, a friend and I decided to join our high school’s swim team. Nothing unusual there, but what was unusual for new swim team members was that neither one of us knew how to swim. Sure, we could move in the water and around the pool […]
Taking Leadership to the Next Level
You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. —2 Timothy 2:2 St. Paul was a “church planter.” He was aware of what it took to plant […]
Imagining Leadership
[Samuel] sent and brought [David] in…. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this the one.” I Samuel 16:12 As a kid, I always had a particular fondness for the story of David’s anointing as the once and future king. Perhaps this was at least partly because, since I was the one who was […]