Comments for Marcuson's Church Leadership Blog

Comment on A Pastoral Resource from Kathleen Rehl: Moving Forward on Your Own, A Financial Guidebook for Widows by Margaret Marcuson

Margaret Marcuson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:04:36 +0000

Thanks, Jennifer! I’m enjoying reading the other CCblogs, too.

Comment on A Pastoral Resource from Kathleen Rehl: Moving Forward on Your Own, A Financial Guidebook for Widows by Jennifer Harris Dault

Jennifer Harris Dault — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:52:24 +0000

Just saw you joined the Christian Century blogging network — congrats on that! When I follow wordpress tags, I find that the CCblogs are the ones I’m most often looking at. Of course, I’ve enjoyed reading your stuff since having class with you, but smiled when I saw your name on the list!

Comment on Kathleen Rehl on What Do You Do with Your Money? by Margaret Marcuson

Margaret Marcuson — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:06:21 +0000

[...] for Widows. Kathleen, a fee-only financial planner, was my guest on my last teleconference. (See here for my brief summary of her comments.) I bought the book after the teleconference, and it’s a [...]

Comment on Do We Take Care of Ourselves Just to Be Effective? by Margaret Marcuson

Margaret Marcuson — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:42:53 +0000

Marcy, thanks for this thoughtful comment. Your last point, about our fear of losing the affection of our congregation if we do what God is truly calling us to do, is a very important one.

Comment on Do We Take Care of Ourselves Just to Be Effective? by Marcy H. Nicholas

Marcy H. Nicholas — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:08:53 +0000

I am reading your book, Leaders Who Last, with three other clergy woman. And on that day that we met, you posted this to your blog, and I shared this with the other clergy. And we had to really ask ourselves: Do we prayer–in order to be more effective, to keep us going, so we can do the work of ministry or do we prayer–to deepen our relationship with God, Jesus, Holy Spirit? Do Christians in general attend worship so they can “get through” the week or do they worship, so they can give worth to God, to focus on God only not on their well being for at least an hour? This idea of soul care to make a difference or soul care to be made different has been a real epiphany, sending me further on a path that I have been traveling since my new appointment. Think about it: Do we do what we do in ministry to please the congregation and do we keep pleasing the congregation or do we have the courage to say, “You know my ministry is not really about you or me. It’s about what God wants of me in this time and place.” (Of course, I’m being extreme here to make a point, for God wants us to be in relationship with others and care for others. But the question is what kind of care?) We get anxious because we might lose the affection of our congregation when we focus more on what God is calling us to do, so we fall into the trap of the quick fix, make people happy so they don’t get mad at us and we’ll deal with God later.

Comment on Four Things Church Leaders Can Learn about Reinvention from Tony Bennett by Gawain

Gawain — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:39:40 +0000

What an insightful article. I was a big fan of Bennett. I think that understanding churches as “learning organizations” can lead us productively into the future.

I did an article using Gordon Ramsay a few months ago, in a similar vein. I also think Sidney Portier would be a good example.

Comment on Is Health Possible in Church Ministry? by Margaret Marcuson

Margaret Marcuson — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:33:04 +0000

Wendi, thanks so much for these insightful comments. And this process of learning to love ourselves as God loves us takes a long time.

Comment on Is Health Possible in Church Ministry? by Wendi Gordon

Wendi Gordon — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:06:09 +0000

Thank you for sharing these thoughts…I think you hit the nail on the head when you stated, “We will never find greater health and wellness if we only think we “should” do it. More and more I’m working on receiving God’s love and acceptance for myself, just as I am. It is out of that place of living in love that I am able to make incremental changes. I’ve begun to think of the voices of judgment and self-criticism as demonic. Can we take care of ourselves without making “self-care” yet another weapon to use to beat ourselves up with?

I am convinced that those voices of judgment and self-criticism are very destructive and often a greater threat to our well-being than any other person or congregation, no matter how dysfunctional. When self-care becomes one more thing to add to the “to do” list and then feel guilty about when we don’t do it perfectly, it is not surprising that we try to avoid it altogether. The key is to remember, as the saying goes, that God loves us just the way we are AND loves us too much to let us stay that way. We need to love ourselves as God loves us.

Comment on How Is Your Writing? by Margaret Marcuson

Margaret Marcuson — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:25:36 +0000

Thanks for this suggestion, Marcy. I’ll look for Williams’ book.

Comment on How Is Your Writing? by Marcy H. Nicholas

Marcy H. Nicholas — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:23:21 +0000

Before I became a pastor, I was an instructor of English at Penn State. Zinsser is a good beginning. But I would highly, highly recommend, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams. Williams is an update to Zinsser, and explains how sentences and paragraphs work and need to be rewritten.