Addressing Loneliness and Fatigue in Ministry

Coaching congregational staff and interviewing congregational leaders is eye opening. A recent conversation with a very capable and nurturing pastor included the following comment: “Pastoral ministry and lay ministry has a high risk of loneliness.” He also associated the loneliness with fatigue that results from the never-ending challenge of ministry. He referenced Henri Nouwen’s comment that church leaders live with a “functional atheism,” or what you might call a “functional secularism.” We in the church do the ministry of the gospel, but our own needs for friendship, spiritual nurture, and even sense of worth can go largely unattended. The grace of God we want for others can leave our own lives untouched. This pastor also noted, “When I pay attention to my rhythms, my daily patterns, my life is not as vulnerable to loneliness and fatigue.” We need the routine, the Christian traditions in our lives, and we need collegiality and friendships.

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What Makes Milestones Ministry Work?

Every congregation does milestones ministry. Baptism, confirmation, weddings, and funerals are all prime examples of life-changing and faith-forming milestones. However, even congregations that acknowledge that they do milestones ministry often miss how to take full advantage of what this vital, twenty-first century ministry has to offer congregations, homes, individuals, and the larger church and society. Here are four helpful strategies embedded in milestones ministry that will maximize your congregation’s effective faith formation and outreach. Paying attention to the following four steps will enrich your milestones ministry in home and congregation.

1. Make it fully cross-generational
2. Follow up contact is essential
3. It’s all about outreach
4. Make Milestones Ministry a way of life.

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Taking Faith Home 2018-2019 Year Cycle C

Year Cycle C CD

Partial Year Download

Taking Faith Home (TFH) is an annual  subscription providing a weekly bulletin insert to enhance faith formation in the home!

• Offers suggested daily Bible readings.
• Gives examples of each of the Four Key faith practices (caring conversations, devotions, service, and rituals and traditions)
• Includes weekly prayers
• Based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

Take a look at Taking Faith Home Card Deck C to compliment the Year Cycle C bulletin inserts.