Expressing our emotions can be powerful motivators, especially during a Sunday sermon delivery. As UCC ministers, your sermons can drive us to pursue our passions, connect deeply with others, and motivate our faith toward doing the greater good.
However, when our emotions are running high in response to life circumstances, they can trigger a response that can impair our ability to think rationally. Stress and anxiety can contribute to hasty decisions especially where it concerns our finances.
By Rev. Bruce G. Epperly, Ph.D.
Despite the fact that many of us haven’t been in seminary for forty years and our children are grown up, September still signals “back to school.” If we were congregational pastors, university chaplains, or campus ministers, we can recall the mad rush of late August and early September, getting ready for “Rally Day,” planning the faith formation program, and readying ourselves for the beginning of the “church year,” not in Advent but practically speaking in September. It’s not as if we were off duty all summer, but with the coming of September, we need to gather our wits and inspiration, plan our fall sermons, ensure a consistent group of teachers for church school, or children’s faith formation, and get the new year underway.
For clergy members, who often prioritize the needs of their congregations over their own, and who may neglect the often-dreaded dental visit, ministers can soon learn that ignoring dental care can affect one’s overall health and one’s ability to serve effectively.
If you have school-aged children, the back-to-school season can be a costly one. Whether you are a UCC minister, lay worker, or a caregiver in an institution of care, the upcoming school season requires financial planning and practicality.
A Guide for Ministers
When embarking on the journey of negotiating a call agreement with a church, it's essential to approach this process with a combination of spiritual discernment and practical wisdom, so that you can negotiate an agreement constructively. If you are a minister in discernment or a recent seminary graduate, here are some tips to help you navigate the negotiation process.
With so much attention focused on securing networks and preventing phishing and avoiding ransomware attacks, the physical side of security sometimes goes overlooked. Even in the modern-day work environment where seemingly everything has an internet connection, we still must remain vigilant against physical threats to our security!
Parks are at the center of so many experiences and memories. Whether you’ve explored local parks in your community or visited some of the monumental national parks elsewhere in the United States, these beautiful spaces are often where we learn about nature, gather with family and friends, exercise and be active, escape from stress, and so much more! In celebration of these special places, July is designated as National Park and Recreation Month. The tips below will help you maximize your enjoyment of local and national parks.
In a typical UCC congregation, the pastor has at least three or four days a week when they’re not working for that church. That’s because 45 percent of United Church of Christ (UCC) congregations have part-time clergy, up from 35 percent in 2017.
A Conversation with Brian Williams, Lilly Endowment Inc.
Church dynamics are changing, lay leadership is evolving, ministry models are taking new forms, and at the center of it all is clergy wellness. To get a denomination-wide view of the church and ministry today, the Pension Boards interviewed Brian Williams, Program Director of Religion for the Lilly Endowment Inc., on his witness to this changing landscape.
Last summer, I took the first sabbatical in my 15-year ministry career. (Sabbatical tip #1: Pray that the Holy Spirit will not call you away from your congregation at year seven!) Although I’m no expert on the subject, my sabbatical was full of fun and adventure, and my return to ministry has brought renewal for both me and for my congregations. Think of this list below not as advice on what you should do, but as things I tried and would do again. Not tips for you, but tips from my experiences. I hope they help you to plan, inspire you to dream, and lead you to renewal.