Posts by David Hughes
Transforming Gift Creates Endowment Fund for Scholarships
When Anjuli Seth Nayak arrived for the first retreat of her Transforming Community, she was clearly a force to be reckoned with! Anjuli was not our typical retreatant. She was Indian in background and a physician by profession, certified as an allergist and immunologist. She was also a cancer survivor, enjoying a temporary…
Read MoreHow do we build a bridge to the next generation of spiritual leaders?
Consider these statistics from Barna Group’s 2017 State of Pastors Project: The average age of Protestant senior pastors is 54, a decade older than 25 years ago, when the average age was 44. Today just one in seven pastors leading congregations is under 40. In the 1960s the majority of pastors were under 45. In…
Read MoreFrom Decision-Making to Discernment: One Leader’s Experience
“If we are not pursuing the will of God together in fairly intentional ways, what are we doing? Our own will? What seems best according to our own thinking and planning? That which is merely strategic or expedient or good for the ego?” —Ruth Haley Barton Years ago I remember watching the doctor who invented…
Read MoreA different kind of calendar
“When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.” – Eugene Peterson I can still remember the first time I heard the…
Read MoreA Different Kind of Calendar
“When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.” – Eugene Peterson I can still remember the first time I heard…
Read MoreTransformation Before My Eyes
“See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it?” (Isaiah 43:19, The Jerusalem Bible) As a former long-term pastor of a congregation, I had the honor of witnessing occasional spiritual transformation in the lives of congregants. Generally, the changes were more gradual than sudden, more subtle than…
Read MoreMinistry update and match gift opportunity
Out of 20 pastors who enter ministry, how many will stay in ministry until they retire? As a former pastor I would have guessed possibly 15, but probably 10. I was not prepared for the real answer—1! This sad reality is not so surprising if you listen to the news. Almost monthly we hear about a Christian leader…
Read MoreIs this all there is?
IS THIS ALL THERE IS? This question unsettles us when it bubbles up inside us, especially when we ask it at church! In an online article written for Christianity Today entitled, “Is This All There Is?,” Fritz Liedtke dares to explore the question that makes church leaders squirm. Liedtke is not ungrateful for his faith…
Read MoreA Different Kind of Calendar
“When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.” – Eugene Peterson I can still remember the first time I heard…
Read MoreBeginning Again… With Advent
When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.” – Eugene Peterson I can still remember the first time I heard…
Read MoreSpiritual Transformation: Hype or Hope?
Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:5 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2 Let’s be honest. To…
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