Ministry in Context

I am part of a large family, at least by modern standards. Nancy and I have five adult children and a growing number of sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. We have five siblings between us, each with spouses and children, so there are cousins spread across the country.

Given the realities of life, it’s a rare time when someone in the extended family isn’t experiencing difficulties or challenges. There is no shortage of suffering, no lack of need for prayer. This is simply true. …

Within the next two months most of our internships will reach the halfway mark. When six months of internship are completed, the lay committee is invited to join with the supervisor and the intern in completing an evaluation. Planning for that evaluation might well begin in January.

First of all, look up the evaluation questions on our website.

This will give you an overview of the task ahead. Review the questions together as a committee. If there are topics no one on the committee has knowledge …

My old pal Pastor T. Albert “Tacky” Carlson was in town visiting his in-laws over the holidays, so we got together for a cup of coffee and some catching up. Tacky served at Melanchthon Memorial Lutheran Church down the street before giving up on snow shoveling and taking a call to St. Susan by the Seashore down in Florida a few years ago.

“Not much of a winter you’re having here,” he greeted me, clad in a classic Norwegian winter sweater and slurping on a peppermint …