Pastoral Initiatives that Work
by Greg Lee, Lead Pastor, Suncrest Christian Church, St. John, Indiana Using the Pastoral Prayer to Highlight Community Initiatives and Build Goodwill Background: I’ve been trying to engage the community and community leaders much more since my experience as a Wabash Pastoral Fellow. Recently, I landed on a very simple approach that became a total…
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God’s Best Plan for the Healing of the World
by Brian Buschkill, pastor of St. Peter’s UCC (Highland), Evansville, Indiana One of the concepts that I was introduced to through my experiences with the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program was the idea that churches (and pastors) have important value to the larger community. On one hand, this was not a new idea to me—as a…
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Calling People to Care for One Another: A Conversation With the Mayor
by Grace Burton-Edwards Rector, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Columbus, Georgia A few weeks ago, I had a phone conversation with my new Mayor. My city is not small but not huge (population around 200,000). I had met the Mayor a few times before he took office in January. His sister is a member of my…
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Exactly Where I Need To Be
by Aaron Stamper Pastor of Youth and Family Ministry, Cross of Grace Lutheran Church, New Palestine, Indiana Questions started to bubble up in the back of my mind not long into my new career as a parish pastor. The questions were typically variations of “What does ‘success’ look like in my congregation?” and “How will…
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A Calling Beyond Borders
by Whitney Rice Associate Rector, St. Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, Zionsville, Indiana I had no idea how inwardly focused my ministry was until I had the opportunity to participate in the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program. There is very clear dividing line in my ministry: pre-Wabash versus post-Wabash. And before, I didn’t realize how small of a…
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Conversations of a Lifetime
by Tracy Paschke-Johannes Pastor, Epiphany Lutheran Church, Centerville, OH, and chaplain in a non-profit hospice in Cincinnati, OH Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to live out my call serving part time in a congregation and part time as a hospice chaplain. It is a sacred opportunity to build long term,…
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Community & Calling Intertwined
by Rev. Stacee Fischer Gehring Pastor, High Street UMCMuncie, Indiana “I have a pulpit every Sunday morning, and I plan to use it.” The words came out of my mouth before I realized just how threatening they sounded. The audience and the moderator laughed, but the truth is, I was serious. When it comes to speaking…
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Alignment: Personal and Public
by Christopher Cox Associate Director, Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment A member of cohort one (2009-2010), I loved the experience of being a part of the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program. The only Catholic in the group, I welcomed the theological diversity, pulling me into dialogue with theologians and thinkers afield from the bibliographies…
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Sanctuary
by Amanda Wagoner Meade Pastor, First Christian Church, Jeffersonville, Indiana At the lowest moment of my ministry, I was standing in the back of my own worship space trying to figure out where to sit. It was a prayer service for my senior pastor who had been arrested and then committed suicide and I needed…
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Building Community Outside Our Walls, Starting Inside Our Walls
By Matthew Stultz Pastor, Acton United Methodist Church, Indianapolis, Indiana In our church building, we have scouts, parent groups, AA, and a preschool. During the Advent season this year, I got busy and wrote a different letter for each group using our building, first stating because of their commitment to help others in this community…
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