What follows is a dream I have had for the last couple of years, as my time on the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry was drawing to a close. The premise is simple: what if there were a facilitated gathering of persons on the Provisional journey who covenanted together to give each other feedback in love around our respective pulpit ministries, so that we can become the best preachers we can be.

Details can be found below, as well as registration information. If you are preparing for Provisional or Full Connection membership, check it out. I’d love to see you in Richmond. Groups will begin meeting in April.

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About ten years ago, I was on a Board of Ordained Ministry seminary visit to Union Presbyterian in Richmond when I asked Beth Downs if I could create and lead a workshop at Conference residency events on the management of time, information, and technology. She agreed.

For the uninitiated, residency events are designed for people who are seeking ordination in our church, people who in the “provisional journey” between commissioning and ordination. These events are provided to offer these nascent clergypersons helpful tools for ministry.

In these workshops, one thing I would discuss is how to manage email, and in this post, I would like to share with you what works for me, as email management is something at which I think I am actually pretty good.

So then, if your New Year’s resolution is to become more organized, read on.

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If you cannot make it to Richmond in the morning for the service of welcome for Bishop Sharma D. Lewis, you can watch the live stream here, starting at 10:30 a.m.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ I pray you are well and have had a safe and happy summer. In this article, I would like to discuss one of the great myths of our faith: that not much happens at church over the summer.

As one would expect, we worshipped each Sunday morning and most Wednesday nights. The office was open during the summer, as it always is. Yet to say that not much happens at Reveille in the summer? Pish-posh!

Let’s look back, shall we? Since June:

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Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” – Matthew 4:8-9

A prayer request from my daughter Claire.

“You are the third United Methodist pastor to present with these symptoms since I began at this medical practice, eighteen months ago,” said my physician.

I didn’t know whether to feel better or worse. I thought “At least I know I am not alone.” Then I tried to figure out who the other two were.

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I fondly remember the day at the 2006 session of the Virginia Annual Conference when we paused from the business of the day to recreate the General Conference debate fifty years prior which would grant full clergy rights to women.

In my twenty years of ministry, I have had the opportunity to work with several wonderful women who were faithful clergy colleagues and gifted servants of Christ.

Yet while we have granted equal clergy rights to women, sixty years has not closed the pay gap between men and women clergy.

A little over twenty years ago, as I was preparing for my own ordination, I read somewhere that there are essentially five milestones in the Christian life. Some of us experience all of them, while others only experience a few. These milestones are birth, baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death.

“Who,” the author inquired, “is the one in the life of the community of faith who is invited to help celebrate all five?”

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