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by Andrew Morton, Assistant Pastor, Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Warsaw, Indiana While reflecting on Indiana’s economy, I have been struck by how often the economic principle of scarcity keeps coming up in discussions on leadership and pastoral imagination. This notion of scarcity can be defined as “the deep belief that no matter how much we…

by Lora Nafziger, Pastor, Assembly Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana Over our time together exploring and discussing economics in Indiana, I was most struck by the idea of functional atheism. This idea insists on despair. It insists that the individual is responsible for whatever happens. There is no room for mystery or miracle; no room for…

by Tim Knauff, Senior Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Valparaiso, IN While on sabbatical this summer I became intensely curious about a pivotal moment in history when things went right, when they shouldn’t have.  It should have been a bloodbath, and it wasn’t.  Why? In the 1970s the 800-year-old Nikolaikirche in Leipzig began hosting “Peace Decades”…

by Wade Apel, Pastor, Servants of Christ Lutheran Church, Indianapolis On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.  – Acts 16:13 For centuries people would gather at the river to wash their clothes together.  They would catch up with the major events going…

by Rebecca Craver, Pastor, Edmonton Moravian Church in Edmonton, Alberta Beginning in February of 2019 I joined a group of about 25 people from various backgrounds to work with a community initiative to address racism in our city.  It’s called, Shift Lab, a social innovation lab supported by the Edmonton Community Foundation to support the…

by Rev. Dr. Kristen Bennett Marble, Senior Pastor, West Morris Church, Indianapolis, Indiana As Cohort 6 of the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Group gathered in Crawfordsville focused on immigration and demography, one focus question caught my attention: “Do we think about these issues differently as citizens of a nation than as citizens of the Kingdom of…

by Fr. Joel Weir, Priest, St. Stephen the First Martyr Orthodox Church, Crawfordsville, Indiana A Reflection on Adaptive Leadership as Practiced in a Midwestern Orthodox Parish One of the biggest challenges in the past few years of my life as pastor at St. Stephens has been the planning, deliberation, discernment involved in addressing our need…

by Earl Smith, Senior Pastor, Beulah Missionary Church, Goshen, Indiana Immigration is a sticky issue. Regardless of your political persuasions, honesty requires all thinking minds to acknowledge that there are not easy answers for the U.S. As pastors in the U.S. we do well to acknowledge to our people that there are issues inherent to…

by Rev. Dr. Timothy Leitzke, Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church, Valparaiso, Indiana In May our cohort delved into demographics and immigration. The former topic is dear to me as my city struggles to acknowledge its demographic realities; the latter is dear to me as my congregation hosts ESL classes, and the students are, one way or…

by Tim Knauff, Senior Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Valparaiso, Indiana My congregation, Christ Lutheran in Valparaiso, has granted me a sabbatical — what a gift! The word “Sabbatical” is from the same root as “Sabbath” — time away, time devoted, holy time spent connecting with God, self, and others. I am profoundly grateful for the…