Because of this reader I can more quickly stay connected with others – personal blogs I read, even news channels like CNN.  I think I have a subscription (all free and pretty simple) to 26 different websites/blogs. 

Here are a few links I would like you check out of blogs I read (some of which I have made comments on):

1. Kansas House Church Charge – A New Appointment by Andrew Conard – this is a really cool idea for making disciples in a new way.
2. Theology of Worship? by Dan Dick – this is a very provocative post, inviting me to consider what really am I seeking to lead when I lead in worship. 
3. Economic Recovery 1 and 2 by Brian McLaren – this post calls us to wrestle with what really is God calling us to pursue when we think of “recovery.”  This post connects well with his book, Everything Must Change.
4. Leadership and Change by Parker Palmer – in this audio podcast  Palmer talked about the vital connection between inner work and social change. 

Here is one of my favorite pictures from my photostream via www.flickr.com.  Enjoy!

If other younger clergy would like to learn more about this program and inquire about future classes, I am very open to receiving emails and sharing my reflections!

The Atlanta session will have a personal focus of “Physical Health.”  This focus is very practical and applicable for my life and ministry.  My most recent health exam highlighted that I need to eat better and exercise more regularly, so as to lower my cholesterol and keep my heart in better health.  The assessment I took in preparation for the Atlanta session of the Lewis Fellows, called Fit to Lead, highlighted the same needs.  I am beginning a program through the United Methodist Church called HealthMiles, which focuses on tracking and rewarding the walking we do every day.  I hope it, will be a good start to my strengthened health. 

The Atlanta session will also feature a leadership focus of “Leading Change.”  This is always a vital aspect of the leadership of clergy, as we help congregations live into God’s vision for their next steps.  In preparation for this session we were invited to read two texts: Leadership on the Lineby Heifetz and Linsky, and Rocking the Boatby Meyerson.  Both of these resources name ways in which leaders help affect change in their organizations, not for the sake of change, but for the purpose of helping the organization address their values, goals, and visions for life (and ministry!).  From a church prospective, it is about helping congregations live out their espoused identities and visions, doing so by making adaptive changes in their behaviors, habits, values, and worldviews.  Below are graphics for these two texts and links to purchase them via Amazon.com.

Shelly and I are excited to announce the arrival of Shaylin Grace Petz.  She was born on Tuesday, the 17th of June, at 11:14pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 15.3 oz and was 20.5 inches long.  Everyone is healthy and doing well.  

Many have asked about the origin of her name.  Shelly and I have always wanted Grace as a girl’s middle name, even before we were pastoring Grace United Methodist Church, however, it offers a cool connection, especially given that Grace’s 150th anniversary is this month.  The first name of my grandmother (mom’s mom) is also Grace (she goes by her middle name, so their won’t be much confusion).

Shaylin is an Irish name that means “admirable”, however what really attracted us to this name were the two separate parts of the name: “shay” means “hawk” and messenger, while “lynn” (lin) means lake.  Shelly and I met one another and were married at Camp Lakeside, and Shelly has found the hawk as an important figure of her journey of life.  Plus we were looking for “Sh” names for girls.  A final cool thing is that it begins with Shelly’s name and ends with mine!

We came home from the hospital (Olathe Medical Center) on Shelly’s birthday, the 19th of June.  

We appreciate your prayers and care!

Click on the picture above (or here) to go to my photostream with flickr.com. 

In a few days I will be taking some training so that I can offer online classes using Blackboard through BeADisciple.com.  My expectation is to offer at least one Online Lay Academy class next fall.  So I have questions for you:

1. Would you be willing to take an online class?
2. What topic(s) would interest you for such a class?
3. How long of a class would you commit to?

“talented ministers are ‘set up to fail’ by being invited to serve churches where their gifts, skills, experience, personality, and other characteristics do not match the needs and culture of that congregation at this point in its history” (61-2).

Indeed that is the case for many of my younger clergy peers, especially in a previous conference.  The understanding coming from the episcopal cabinet was that we were called to “bloom where we are planted.”  While I agree that we are called to grow into the positions and roles to which we are appointed, this platitude misses the vital horticultural practice of having a correct environment for a particular plant to grow.  Growing up on a farm in western Kansas, we would have never tried to plant corn in our fields dominated by dry and sandy soil.  There would not be enough nutrients, nor water for the crop to yield enough to meet the expenses of that particular operation. 

I have had younger clergy peers who were placed into common “first-time” placements – those that no one else wanted, partly to put them into a new environment, but maybe also to “pay their dues”, or to require them to ”wait their turn.”  The result was them becoming quite depleated as individuals, so much so that their desire to serve God and their community quickly became a painful burden.  Multiple peers seriously considered finding their calling fulfilled in other venues or other denominations. 

Weems & Michel’s text offer suggestions regarding the deployment of young clergy:

1. Pay significant attention to the appointments of our young clergy, so that they might begin their ministry with strength and health – even be able to form habits that will carry them through their years.
2. Appoint young clergy where they can make a difference – placing them where they can utilize their gifts and graces, and find a community of peers to support them.
3. Use associate positions strategically – given that 40% of younger clergy are associates, see their role as a time of training, not becuase they cannot do the ministry of others, but as opportunities to learn and develop.
4. Re-consider Itineracy – younger clergy do not statisically agree that the current UM system works well.  Maybe we are at a point of relooking at how we deploy all of our clergy leadership.
5. Re-consider Guarenteed Appointments – younger clergy today are not strong advocates of our current guarentee practice.  How might the UMC find ways to strengthen its clergy leadership, while also challenging them to become the leaders we have been waiting for?

Questions: What vision of ministry and clergy leadership will help our current congregations flourish and become vital into the years ahead?  What changes do you suggest?  How might the young clergy help change the system?