21stCenturyMinistry – The BTS Center

Calling Across the Bow

The Way Onward for Bearings: Navigating Life-as-Ministry

Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, AboutBearings, Art and Creativity, Commentary, Wilderness.

When I started this piece some weeks ago, the world was a different place. I had taken a jauntier tone than feels possible now. After all, here we are announcing not only the fifth year of publishing Bearings—a milestone for any publication, big or small—but also celebrating the launch of a redesigned site for the magazine, a new publication schedule, and a new... Read more

A Year of Lessons Learned at Bearings

With an Eye to the Road Ahead

Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review, Bearings Review 2018.

In our most recent issue, we invited contributors to explore the lessons they’ve learned throughout their lives that speak to the opportunities and challenges of ministry in these times. Nicole Lamarche, a self-described “spiritual entrepreneur,” shared the joys and heartaches of getting a progressive community of faith off the ground. Her reflection on nearly... Read more

Learning From Hearts Broken Open

Lessons from 25 Years of Ministry on the Growing Edge

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Lessons Learned.

My nephew was a bright, ascending star. His academic acumen was extraordinary. His athletic ability was astounding. Musically, he was captivating with a repertoire and skill that could have landed him just about anywhere. And on July 14, 2018, he took his own life. Journalist Roxanne Roberts was right when she wrote of her father’s death more than 30 years... Read more

Not a Dirty Word

Administration as a Spiritual Practice

Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturySpirituality, Lessons Learned.

I only signed up for the class because my seminary required it. Church Administration sounded boring. I associated “administration”" with business. It seemed unlikely that I would go to work for a large church, and even if I did, the jobs I would apply for as a new seminary graduate would be associate positions. "Administration" carried the flavor of middle... Read more

Achieving Failure

Lessons Learned from a Progressive Church Start-Up

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Lessons Learned.

With a big smile, a bit of money raised, and enough naiveté to blind me, I showed up to the office of the Conference of the Northern California Nevada United Church of Christ. It was the fall of 2010, and I had left a beautiful village church in New England to follow the call to start a new progressive church for this place and this time. There was enthusiasm... Read more

Getting Our Bearings: Ministries of Coping

A Guide for Reflection & Conversation

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Coping.

If you look up the words “cope” or “coping” in a dictionary, you’ll find entries like these: “to struggle or deal with, especially on fairly even terms of with some degree of success,” “to face and deal with problems or difficulties, especially successfully or in a calm or adequate manner,” or “to have the capacity to deal successfully with something difficult.” Their... Read more

Finding the Face of the Church Becoming

Can a Renewed Pluralism Nurture a ‘Church on the Way’ that Engages Young People?

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality.

It was May, 1965 when a group of African-American Episcopalians from the Episcopal Society for Culture and Racial Unity, also known as ESCRU, attempted to enter an Episcopal Church in St. Augustine, Florida for Sunday mass. As explored in United By Faith: The Multicultural Congregation As An Answer to Race, these Episcopalians were blocked from entering the church... Read more

Becoming Digitally-Integrated Church

A Media Scholar and a Church Staff Advisor Reflect on How Our Online Lives are Shaping Religious Practice Today—And How Churches can Respond, Connect, and Engage Online and Off

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, Becoming Church, DigitalMinistry.

A decade and a half ago, Heidi’s book, Exploring Religious Communities Online, documented how traits of early forms of online religious communities emerging in the late 1990s posed both a potential challenge and opportunity to offline churches. These early “virtual communities,” as they were referred to, grew out of the web 1.0 era of email lists, newsgroups, and... Read more

Generating Church through Sound

Showing up, Listening Deeply, and Practicing Together

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Art and Creativity.

I teach community singing and chanting as a spiritual practice. I travel around the country meeting and singing with people in different denominations, teaching and learning new songs and insights, and moving on to the next community. Through more than 30 years, the singing together has become as much a metaphor for noticing our internal states, finding our... Read more

Small Is the New Big

A Guide for Reflection & Conversation

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Small Church Vitality.

The articles in this month’s Bearings magazine, “Small Is the New Big,” illuminate questions raised by the realities of small church ministry. In them we read eyewitness accounts of the spiritual energy in churches described as “small”—small that is, when the metric applied is a numerical count of members or weekly worship attendance. The articles invite us to... Read more