Glen's Church Blog | Mediation Blog Minnesota

How Many [fill in the blank]s Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

How many (you fill in the denomination)s does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Change? It is certainly true that for most folks, change is not easily accepted in the church. People will tolerate change at work, home, and in government far more easily than in their churches. Perhaps it’s because for churchgoers,…

Conflicting Church Visions

Recently I had the privilege of a conversation with Melanie Wallschlaeger, mission developer for SW Washington Synod, ELCA, she impressed upon me the need for care in developing the vision for a church. A vision needs to connect the community to God, to the community and to each other; to community it’s esp. important not…

Boundaries in Church Families

The closer the family, the greater the need for good boundaries. it is in congregations where “enquiring minds want to know” that there is the greatest danger of conflict. One thinks of a close knit community as one where everyone knows everything about everyone else but this is not quite true. In Main Street, Sinclair…

Holy Week, Easter and church fights

Strangely enough, Holy Week is not a week for church fights in most places. Simply put, the people in church who love being traditional are too busy preparing and helping with Easter breakfasts, commuinion, music, footwashing etc.. Working together to make sure the traditions get done well (in the traditional style) generally takes precedence over…

The Value of the “Pause”

In most US denominations, there is a problem dealing with the issue of homosexuality especially with respect to marriage and ordination. It is commonly thought that if the national denomination reaches a conclusion that problems are over. Far from it. In the UCC, for example, they have been ordaining openly practicing homosexuals for many years.…

Church Mediation and Late Winter Blahs

I have found in churches, as in pastors, a tendency toward depression the last month or so of winter. One church I pastored had a blow-up every year at the end of January that would intensify until the weather started getting warmer. Once the weather changed to springlike conditions the controversy would fade away almost…

Connecting With Your Congregation

A pastor I once knew had a hard time with visitation. What do I talk about? What’s important? Good questions In my book, he most important part of pastoral relationship is connection. How do I connect with members I don’t know, especially older members? You start by listening. You listen to what they talk about,…

How Churches Decline

Clayton Christensen argues in The Innovator’s DNA that businesses decline because in the early stages of a business there are many innovators but as the business gets established the innovators are replaced by managers and the innovators essentially go away. As innovators leave, so does creativity. Without creativity and innovation businesses cannot respond to changing times…

CONFLICT IN CHURCH

Church fights are even harder to resolve than divorces. Why? It’s because most people fight in churches about things they were taught, consciously or unconsciously when they were very young, often by their parents or by observation. In divorces most people understand what they’re fighting over and why (usually custody of the kids or property).…

Working Preacher article

I just had a theological article published on Working Preacher. This week you can find it on the front page. It’s a piece about my voice surgery and the gift of silence. GB