The Best of Bearings

We celebrate. We bid farewell. We look ahead.

Posted in AboutBearings, Bearings Review 2019, Featured Article, From The BTS Center's Executive Director, Lessons Learned, Our Team.

“It’s December, and nobody asked if I was ready,” writes poet Sarah Kay. December arrives every year with a bit of urgency, doesn’t it? The last remnants of turkey are still in the refrigerator, and all of a sudden, almost without warning, ready or not, we find ourselves turning the calendar to the very last page, and we’re forced to confront the truth that... Read more

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

Map is Not Territory

Navigating Ministry-as-Life in the New Bearings Season

Posted in AboutBearings, Hope, Themes.

When we began Bearings three years ago—all the way back in the world of September 2014—we had some modest aspirations. In his introductory post, Bob Grove-Markwood contextualized the blog by drawing on his navigational experience as a Marine and a transplanted Mainer. He explained that Bearings aims to help those in ministry—in what often feels like a church unmoored... Read more

Bearings Retrospective: Eclipse Edition

Posted in AboutBearings.

We’ve had a couple of difficult weeks here in the United States. Two weekends ago, white supremacy and domestic terrorism publicly reared their sinful heads in Virginia. (Too bad it took the specter of Tiki torch-bearing men shouting racist slogans and the murder of civil rights advocate Heather Heyer to shake so many people out of privileged complacency and denial.)... Read more

Conversation Starter

Moving Into Year Three of Getting Our Bearings by Sharing Our Stories

Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturySpirituality, AboutBearings.

As we ease into our third year of publication of The BTS Center’s award-winning blog, Bearings, co-editors Elizabeth Drescher and Alyssa Lodewick have been mulling the role of outlets like ours in shaping what the Church is becoming in a dynamic religious landscape. We’re excited to continue what we see as a multi-dimensional dialogue that extends across that terrain.... Read more

Looking Back on Bearings

A Retrospective on the Blog's Second Year

Posted in AboutBearings.

Perhaps because I have spent so many years of my life in school and church settings, I relish these last few weeks of August. Sure, classes may be starting in educational institutions across the nation, but in my mind, “academic summer”—with its more luxurious, relaxed pace—won’t officially end until after Labor Day, when vacations come to a close, the speed of... Read more

Here’s to a Second Year

Ushering in a New Season of Navigation for Bearings

Posted in AboutBearings.

As I anticipate the kickoff of the second season of Bearings: Navigating Life-As-Ministry, I want to thank the award-winning blog’s co-editors, Elizabeth Drescher and Alyssa Lodewick, for their work on convening the diverse community of voices that contributed to a successful inaugural year. I am also deeply grateful to all of our bloggers, who offered such insightful... Read more

Crunching the Numbers on Bearings’s First Year

Posted in AboutBearings.

Big Data. Analytics. They’re not just for corporations, health insurance companies, and advertising agencies anymore. In an era obsessed with return on investment and concrete measurements of success, churches, spiritual communities, and religious institutions are evaluating their own relationships to numbers. Take the United Church of Christ, for example. It... Read more

Navigating Life-as-Ministry

Posted in AboutBearings, Bearings Review 2015.

BEARINGS (noun): comprehension of one's position, environment, or situation. Welcome to BEARINGS, a blog space featuring local, regional, and national 21st century ministry thought leaders and thoughtful practitioners. In BEARINGS posts, diverse voices will offer commentary and insights on how ministry is changing today and share stories of inspiring networked,... Read more

Sharing the Load in 21st-Century Ministry

Posted in AboutBearings.

When we were brainstorming names for the new blog for The BTS Center blog, we agreed quickly that something related to the real, geographical landscapes and cultural nuances of ministry in the 21st century was important. The BTS Center is a Maine native, and its immediate network is in Northern New England. Though the Center’s mission extends to wider regional... Read more