March 9th, 2010
Your job, young pastor, is to maintain a non-anxious presence within the church you pastor. Knowing that we live in a time when anxiety is everywhere–a time when religion, in particular, has been whipped into a paralyzing frenzy of anxiety by those who are served by fear. Easier said than done, maintaining a non-anxious presence. Where to begin? Befriend the book of Psalms.
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Tags: anxiety, bible, Edwin Friedman, human, prayer, the jesus community, The Paraclete Psalter. book of psalms
Posted in advice to young pastors | 7 Comments »
March 2nd, 2010
Here’s a myth about pastoring that will crush you if you mistake it for truth: when a pastor is doing his or her job, the church will be calm. Like any myth, this one endures because it distorts a truth: that good pastoring helps a church manage conflict, tension, and turmoil better than bad pastoring. (And that bad pastoring can generate enormous turmoil in a church.) The myth hides the reality that we pastor now in an age of very high anxiety, owing to a rapid pace of change all around us.
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Tags: anxiety, change, Edwin Friedman, leadership, population, post-denominational, technology
Posted in advice to young pastors | 6 Comments »