Give Where It Matters
by Eddie Pipkin I was on at a complex of hiking and mountain biking trails a couple of weeks ago, and down by the informational kiosk at the start of the route, I was delighted [...]
Believe in Your Team
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Артур Закиров from Pixabay I was at my young friend, Chance’s, amazing wedding in Colorado last weekend. It was visually outstanding, held on a farm in a valley [...]
Promote Thyself (Seriously)
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay My wife and I have a household trophy that we use to celebrate small but meaningful moments that might otherwise pass without mention. It's [...]
Olive Garden Theology
by Eddie Pipkin Image by congerdesign from Pixabay When reading an article this week that contemplated which kinds of institutions do the best job of bringing rich Americans and poor Americans together in [...]
Training Camp
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Pexels from Pixabay Football season is right around the corner, and I can’t wait. I love football, pro and college (go Knights!), and I will spend waaaaay too [...]
New Look New Life
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay I was cleaning up the good ol’ Honda CRV last week, when, lo and behold, I discovered a feature that I had never used [...]
Build Those Skills
by Eddie Pipkin (Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) Last week, at the conclusion of my “Misaligned Metrics” blog, I teased you with a reference to Excellence in Ministry Coaching’s new Leadership Skill [...]
Misaligned Metrics
by Eddie Pipkin Image by FlitsArt from Pixabay Reading author and reporter Ann Helen Peterson’s Culture Study newsletter on Substack last week, my ears perked up when she got on a rant about [...]
Line of Deference
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Peter Dargatz from Pixabay I was out for a sunrise run on the beach last week, when I found myself approaching another runner coming in my direction. It [...]
The Barbenheimer Effect
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, or you don’t do the ‘socials,’ or you don’t go to movies, you may have missed [...]
Hold on to Your Potato
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Dmitry Abramov from Pixabay I love reading about quirky phrases, so I was delighted when I came across this one sometime in the past few months -- I [...]
Benched
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Marisa Sias from Pixabay I’ve been following the Major League Baseball number one performance by the Tampa Bay Rays this season (always the underdogs, those underfunded and underloved [...]
At the Airport
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay Flying around to unfamiliar cities in the past couple of weeks made me acutely aware of the amenities and atmosphere of airports. Here is [...]
Satisficed!
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Are you a “satisficer” or an “optimizer”? If you don’t know the difference, this is the blog for you. And you should know the [...]
Summer Purge
by Eddie Pipkin Cleaning: Image by svklimkin from Pixabay It’s pretty common for publications to run an article or two about spring cleaning as the weather warms up. And just as individual homeowners [...]
On Fleek Cellies
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay Everybody loves a celebration. Or as Gen Z (aka, the tech-savvy ‘Zoomers’) sometimes calls them, cellies. I was reading an article this week about the [...]
Waffle House Rules
by Eddie Pipkin Photo by Pipkin I was taking my wife to the airport for an early morning flight, and since it was Saturday, even though it wasn't yet daylight, we decided to [...]
Milestones
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Thomas Breher from Pixabay Well, I turned 60 yesterday. Hopefully, I survived the day. I finished the blog beforehand, so that even if I didn’t make it through [...]
Too Many Bears
by Eddie Pipkin Image by David Mark from Pixabay I was at a wedding in Tennessee last weekend, in the Great Smoky Mountains to be precise, and if you’ve been blessed to visit [...]
RUD Rules
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Christian Bodhi from Pixabay I’m nerdy enough to have been among the excited online onlookersfor last week’s long-anticipated Starship launch. Starship is the largest craft ever lifted from [...]
How to Break the Spell
by Eddie Pipkin I was at the awesome new St. Pete Pier last week. It is a testament to innovative public space planning. It’s been enthusiastically embraced by the locals and lauded in national travel [...]
What’s Your Reason?
by Eddie Pipkin Image by mastrminda from Pixabay I was checking off email a couple of weeks ago, and I clicked on an “IKEA Family” message, because I signed up a while back [...]
March Mindfulness
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Schorsch from Pixabay We can’t close out March without me composing a riff on the basketball paradise that is March Madness. It’s been an amazing tournament this year, [...]
Inadvisable Outcomes
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Carlos Lincoln from Pixabay I was reading last week about the inventor, Thomas Midgley, Jr. His name was unfamiliar to me, but his inventions. He was responsible for [...]
Slingshot Drivers
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Günther Mayrwöger from Pixabay We were on a road trip this past weekend, and I was treated yet again to an interstate phenomenon that seems to me to [...]
Dial M For Ministry
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Stefan Kuhn from Pixabay Everything old is new again, and all formerly popular things eventually come back into fashion. It’s true for high-waisted jeans; it’s true for mullets [...]
One Stop Funeral Shop
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Yerson Retamal from Pixabay My mother-in-law passed away in early December, and my wife and her brother found themselves in that scenario in which we all inevitably find [...]
Fun Enough?
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Aritha from Pixabay I was struck by the headline in a recent news scroll on my phone. “Am I fun enough?” Before I clicked it, I thought maybe [...]
Rules to Live By
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay Among the many heart-wrenching narratives from the recent catastrophic earthquake that impacted Turkey and Syria, none was more tragic than the realization that one of [...]
My New BFF
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Cheryl Holt from Pixabay I went with my wife on a cruise a few weeks ago. It was one of those small ships, no more than 240 people [...]
Projection of Enthusiasm
By Eddie Pipkin I was at a race event at Daytona International Speedway last weekend, and I happened to have a pass that allowed me infield access. Looking up from ground level from some distance [...]
Compendium of Complaints
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay Now is about the time when those New Year’s resolutions start wearing off, so if you have any complainers in your circle who swore [...]
Chatbot or Not
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Monika Grafik from Pixabay Did I even write this paragraph? If you’re into tech developments, and you’ve been reading the recent articles about ChatGPT, you will already know [...]
Freshly Minted Mantra
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Pexels from Pixabay Last week I wrote about resolutions, but I left an important one out – which, of course, means that I left last week’s blog entry, [...]
I Resolve
By Eddie Pipkin Let’s make some resolutions, kids! It’s that time of year, and as people of ritual and calendar-based customs, it’s a fine exercise in thoughtful visioning to get on the 2023 resolutions bandwagon. [...]
The Nice List
by Eddie Pipkin Last Sunday, a week before Christmas, I had the privilege to worship in a little 150-year-old church and hear the cantata performed by a 10-voice choir that brought a warm glow of [...]
Stocking Stuffers
By Eddie Pipkin Just in time for the final flurries of the holiday gift-giving season, I’m here with a few ideas for stocking stuffers. You know, not the big, boldly boxed and beribboned packages that [...]
Not So Simple
By Eddie Pipkin A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the value of keeping things simple. “If you’re feeling stressed when the calendar is full, pare things down and be a minimalist,” I wrote. [...]
Mandatory Thanksgiving
By Eddie Pipkin Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! It is Turkey Day. The Official Start of the Holiday Season. Family Day. Parade and Football Day. The National Day of Gratitude (“a day of Thanksgiving [...]
Misfit Power
By Eddie Pipkin Here are two different ways to define the word misfit: 1) a person whose behavior or attitude sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way; or 2) a deviation or [...]
Backtalk
by Eddie Pipkin I was on a shopping excursion recently and found myself inadvertently trapped in the Ninth Circle of the-Place-That-Is-Not-Heaven. I needed a bag of filter material for my pool pump, and the only [...]
Where the People Are
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about putting people where they will thrive in ministry. This week I’m writing about putting the ministries where the people are! Our traditional model is to provide ministry [...]
Rightplanted
By Eddie Pipkin I’m not much of a gardener. I love growing things—love my yard—love green things in general. But I’m not disciplined enough to grow a formal garden. Our yard has a lightly loved, [...]
Hedonic Treadmill
By Eddie Pipkin One of the researchers I linked you to last week touched on the topic of hedonic adaptation (also known as the hedonic treadmill), a concept that's been around in psychology for a [...]
Hit the Showers
By Eddie Pipkin Finding yourself stuck on how to solve a thorny problem? Dipping into the well for your next imaginative endeavor and finding it bone dry? Checking the old brainbox for a new idea [...]
Disaster Styles
By Eddie Pipkin Well, Ian came and went, and while we have a profound sadness for our Florida brothers and sisters who took a direct hit on the southwest coast, here in Orlando the damage [...]
Mistakes Made and Unmade
By Eddie Pipkin As I sit here in my Central Florida home, gazing out the window at my yard full of gorgeous live oaks, awaiting the imminent arrival of hurricane Ian, there’s nothing to do [...]
Know Your Vibe
By Eddie Pipkin I have some friends who get together to do an annual excursion to haunted-house-themed attractions. If you live in Central Florida, this is a big deal. People travel from across the country [...]
Long Live the Queen
By Eddie Pipkin On the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the news was filled with special coverage which reviewed her extraordinary life and 70-year reign. What stood out was the astonishing historical and cultural change that [...]
The Sociable Church
By Eddie Pipkin Everybody needs friends. They are essential to our health and happiness. We’ve written about this topic on more than one occasion, because it’s one of those topics that pops back into the [...]
Accountability Counts (Part 2)
By Eddie Pipkin Football season begins in earnest this weekend, and if you’ve read any of my blogs for any length of time, you’ll know that I love sports in general and football in particular, [...]
Accountability Counts
By Eddie Pipkin I wrote last week about my latest Colorado adventure and how, despite the distinct possibility of failure, my excursion team and I made it to the top of our designated peak. The [...]
Prepare to Fail
by Eddie Pipkin I’m in Colorado this week, and some buddies and I are going to attempt to check off one of my bucket list items: hiking to the top of a 14,000 foot peak. [...]
Adios Choco Taco
By Eddie Pipkin I haven’t seen an ice cream truck in the neighborhood in a long time, but whenever I hear that inimitable high-pitched, tinny tune (usually ‘Turkey in the Straw”), I can’t help but [...]
The Multiplying Dimension
By Eddie Pipkin My mom loves the Cracker Barrel. She can’t get enough of those biscuits and gravy and that sweet, iced tea. She’s partial to the pinto beans and collards lunch combo. It’s far [...]
The Maturing Dimension
By Eddie Pipkin The kids and I bought my wife a very cool raised bed gardening platform for Mother’s Day. It was something she had talked about wanting for a while, a space out on [...]
The Gathering Dimension
By Eddie Pipkin If you’re looking for the secret sauce that makes local congregations effective, the mortar that binds the ministry foundation of vital and purposeful institutions of faith, it’s relationships. Even when churches lose [...]
The Discipling Dimension
By Eddie Pipkin Christians identify themselves as followers of Christ. The term by which we are identified is disciple. It was used to describe those first literal followers – those who walked from town to [...]
The Worship Dimension
By Eddie Pipkin Worship is the distinctive expression of our faith. You can have a philosophy of life, a set of principles to guide your decision making, or a list of rules to govern your [...]
Discernment
By Eddie Pipkin Discernment, as defined in its normal, non-church-related context, is about a display of judgment or taste. Take fashion, for instance. I have no fashion sense. No one has ever accused me of [...]
7 Practical Dimensions
By Eddie Pipkin I had a bizarre power outage in the house last week: one section of wall outlets went kaput without throwing any breakers. I couldn’t figure it out, and I was on the [...]
The Price of Hospitality
by Eddie Pipkin We have had a very full house for the past four weeks. Different sets of visitors have been congregating with us for days at a time on either end of that period, [...]
Obstinacy
by Eddie Pipkin I am itchy, and it’s my own dang fault. I am currently suffering from a wicked case of poison ivy. I was doing a good deed last Saturday, helping some older folks [...]
You Know?
by Eddie Pipkin Sometimes, you think something is obvious, but it turns out it’s only obvious to you. In day-to-day life, misplaced assumptions can be a minor stumbling block or a major source of humor [...]
Micah 6:8 Church
by Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about using the iconic biblical passage from Micah 6:8 as a guide for best management practices for leaders. This week we’ll expand on that idea by using the [...]
Micah 6:8 Management
by Eddie Pipkin Having written last week about the never-ending variety of leadership styles and management theories, I want to share a specific one this week. I was leading a discussion with my Tuesday morning [...]
Go Your Own Way
by Eddie Pipkin If you want to manage better, lead better, coach better, there are no shortage of programs, gurus, “next big things,” or magic formulas for success. Take your pick of best sellers, TED [...]
Put a Rock In It
By Eddie Pipkin Recently I was gifted a revelation about a home maintenance problem that had hounded me for months. This minor glitch had been a headache small enough that I kept not putting in [...]
Grammy Gold
by Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about the Oscars, so this week it’s only fair that I give a shout-out to the recently-aired Grammys. For my wife and me, the Grammy Awards is our [...]
Slap Protocol
By Eddie Pipkin Unless you have been in a cave on your yearly no-technology retreat to Borneo, you know that Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the live Oscars telecast a couple of weeks ago. [...]
Grow and Bulb: Guest EMC3 Blog
Guest Blog by Rev. Dr. Candace Adams One of my favorite gifts to receive is a flowering plant. This year for Christmas, I received an amaryllis bulb. Typically, the bulb produces a green stalk and [...]
The Serenity Foci
By Eddie Pipkin Following up on my blog theme from last week, it clicked for me how the call to keep our focus on the right thing at the right time is perhaps most clearly [...]
Dangerous Distractions
By Eddie Pipkin I was at a local botanical garden last weekend with my wife. It was a gorgeous day, and I was obsessed in the moment with my attempt to capture a perfect photo. [...]
Tailgate Time
By Eddie Pipkin I have a yearly tradition with some pals in which every February we head up to Daytona for the Friday night truck race. The NASCAR superspeedway action is a blast, and we [...]
In Good Time
By Eddie Pipkin Right about this time of year, it’s fun to take stock of all those New Year’s resolutions that everybody made and how they are all working out. The gyms are looking less [...]
Best of Both Worlds
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about avoiding the pitfalls of fast-fashion thinking when it comes to ministry. Even as we grow, change, evolve, and adapt, we can’t be constantly lurching to the next [...]
Grow-Change-Remember
By Eddie Pipkin I love to discover places that manage to find the elusive balance between celebrating old traditions and embracing new growth and ideas. Last weekend, my wife and I stumbled on just such [...]
The Whole Hog
By Eddie Pipkin I love ritual and tradition (which kind of makes sense for this line of work, doesn’t it?) So, every year, I eat the same thing on New Year’s Day. Like the southern [...]
No Bahs No Humbugs
By Eddie Pipkin You might have picked up on my great affection for Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It is one of my favorite stories of any season, not just Christmas. It’s perfect in structure, effective [...]
Merry Christmas!
By Eddie Pipkin Christmas is here, a full and frantic season for all you merry elves of ministry. So, let us just take a moment to wish you a blessed and happy time with family [...]
Van Gogh, Dickens, and Basketball
By Eddie Pipkin Since I’m always keenly attuned, whenever I attend any public event, to the dynamics of venues, programming, and hospitality, the past 10 days has been a gift that kept giving. I was [...]
Cheerleaders
By Eddie Pipkin Last weekend I ran a half marathon. It was the second one I had done, and it felt like I was woefully unprepared. My training schedule had been disrupted by some unplanned [...]
How to Start The Wave
By Eddie Pipkin There was a lot of great football on last weekend, and if you watched any of it while you were digesting all that turkey, at some point you noted a spontaneous, ubiquitous [...]
Thanks-selfies
By Eddie Pipkin Here we are, arrived at the cusp of the Day of Giving Thanks. And you’ll be expressing gratitude in all manner of ways for all manner of benefactions. Gratitude, as I like [...]
When in Hallmark Land
By Eddie Pipkin I was stranded trying to get home this week when my Jeep gave up the ghost in Georgia, where I’d been helping family for a few days. I was already a day [...]
Everybody Needs Some LaMelo
by Eddie Pipkin Every organization needs a LaMelo. If you don’t know what a LaMelo is, read on, dear friend. But believe me when I say that your life will be richer, your organization freshly [...]
Church as Extended Family
By Eddie Pipkin Last week, I experienced two different insights into how the church might (or might not) respond to cultural shifts by functioning as an extended family for people who need new ways to [...]
No Virtual Hayrides
By Eddie Pipkin No such thing as a virtual hayride! I love hayrides -- one of my jobs over the years with the local church at which I was a member was making the hayride [...]
Lead Like Powell
By Eddie Pipkin As a lifelong news junkie and history nerd, I paused this week to consider the life and times of Colin Powell, trailblazer and witness to many of the headline events of my [...]
Delightfully Unexpected
By Eddie Pipkin On my run last Saturday morning, just as the sun was coming up and just as I rounded the corner from my street to the next, there at the end of a [...]
Pumpkin Theology
By Eddie Pipkin It’s pumpkin patch season for lots of churches! Ah, those acres of orange glory, picked over by delirious kids (who insist on only the plumpest pumpkins) and their perfect-photo-seeking parents (who keep [...]
Mixed Messages
By Eddie Pipkin I got a kick out of this sight on the side of the road in my neighborhood. I mean, what exactly is going on here? Is somebody throwing away a perfectly good [...]
Pub Group Is Dead
(Long Live Pub Group) By Eddie Pipkin Ah, let us pause to memorialize those innovative church ideas that did not survive the pandemic. For instance, pub group. Pub groups, for churches seeking to be relevant, [...]
Curb Your Jumpthusiasm
By Eddie Pipkin A couple of months ago, I received a humbling lesson in not jumping to conclusions. I was reading the sports page and encountered the article announcing that the Cleveland Indians, after years [...]
The Essentials
By Eddie Pipkin When I was backpacking this summer, I took along a newbie, my nephew who just graduated from high school. This nephew had never done any backpacking before – in fact, he had [...]
More Provisional, Less Divisional
By Eddie Pipkin Change happens. It’s one of the few certainties in life and ministry. Often change desperately needs to happen. We become stuck in a rut, and the only way forward to renewal is [...]
Ministry Gentrification
By Eddie Pipkin In my recent beachside travels, I was staying in a rental house with friends. Thisneighborhood had been around for decades. It began as a collection of modest cottages – a beach getaway [...]
Pothole Postulations
By Eddie Pipkin I am hanging out in the Florida Panhandle this week, and I’m doing my daily runs on unfamiliar roads, which I really enjoy. In fact, these roads are clay/sand roads, shaded by [...]
The Twisties (Part 2)
By Eddie Pipkin I received an email in response to last week’s blog, “The Twisties,” which expressed disappointment in my take on the topic. The writer understood my interest in promoting mental health ministries for [...]
The Twisties
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about Simone Biles, her impact on attitudes toward mental health, and the intersection of mental health awareness and ministry. This week we’ll explore that further. It’s a big [...]
No Perfect Trips
By Eddie Pipkin It had been a few years since I had participated in a legitimate multi-day backpacking trip, so I had to dig deeply in my mental files (and on my garage shelves) to [...]
Disconnected Delight
By Eddie Pipkin I just wrapped up a backpacking trip in Colorado, and you’ll probably be treated to no less than three blog ideas generated by that little adventure. It’s spectacular – I recommend it [...]
Whimsy Rules
By Eddie Pipkin My stepdad loves a good sunrise at the beach, and he was in town for the 4th, so over we drove to start the day before anybody else had thought about rising. [...]
Hurrah for Has-Beens
By Eddie Pipkin It’s Tour de France season, and if you’ve never watched a stage of the world’s most eminent bike race, I highly encourage you to check it out. It is beautiful pageantry and [...]
Sensible Swag
By Eddie Pipkin I helped out for a morning at VBS this week – and a shout-out to my pals at College Park UMC for a well-run, fully-throttled, highly enthusiastic railway adventure. I was just [...]
Auscultation for the Soul
By Eddie Pipkin There’s listening, and then there’s listening. Last week I wrote about the value of listening to voices different from the ones we usually hear, including the need to make time for deep [...]
Down the Rabbit Hole
By Eddie Pipkin This, my friends, is the Nissan GT-R Nismo – more accurately, the Nissan GT-R35 Nismo Lego kit. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, welcome to the subject of [...]
Lost in Translation
By Eddie Pipkin My two great-nephews are in town for a visit, and in my official capacity as “fun uncle” (and now fun great-uncle), I decided to take them to a water park. I haven’t [...]
Here We Go
By Eddie Pipkin Phil and I travel in different circles: I work out of a converted yard tool storage room, a writing recluse, tucked away in my cave of creativity; he travels the country meeting [...]
Laissez Faire Leadership
By Eddie Pipkin I was having lunch with a colleague last week, and I asked him how he would describe the leadership style of his new boss. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then he [...]
The Thing That Needs Doing
By Eddie Pipkin My wife and I have the joy of living on a small lake. It’s just large enough for a short paddle, and the lake’s edge attracts interesting birds, sometimes an otter or [...]
Sandcastle Theology
By Eddie Pipkin I took this photo a few weeks ago at Clearwater Beach. I’m really into sandcastles. I’ve built hundreds (some even with my kids when they were younger). The one in the picture [...]
Lessons from an Unlikely Loo
By Eddie Pipkin My wife got her Mother’s Day gift a couple of weeks early when her long-dreamed home modification became a reality. We now have a half-bath on the lower level of the house [...]
Post Pandemic Party Plans
By Eddie Pipkin As more and more friends and family are vaccinated, and the world desperately lurches towards normal, my calendar is filling up with catch-up dates: gatherings to catch up with folks we haven’t [...]
In Plain Sight
By Eddie Pipkin Time for the Pipkin hacienda to get a new roof. I did all my due diligence, got my estimates (ouch!), and chose a local roofing company we felt really good about. We [...]
Customer SERVICE
By Eddie Pipkin I headed over to the charming berg of Dunedin, Florida for a post-Easter getaway with a couple of friends earlier this week, and I had talked these guys into bringing some bikes, [...]
Wipeout
By Eddie Pipkin I was hanging out with some Middle Schoolers last weekend at their (safely socially distanced) Sunday night youth gathering when the time came for them to break out into small groups. I’ve [...]
Kindness as Strategy
By Eddie Pipkin Kindness is not the first thing that comes to mind when we consider the pathway to corporate success. Cutthroat competition and a “succeed or die” mentality produce cultures known less for empathy [...]
Fight the Cram!
By Eddie Pipkin Overspilling trash cans, overpacked suitcases, overloaded trailers, and overtaxed wifi networks! Seems like everywhere I look in the past couple of weeks, people are trying to cram too much of whatever into [...]
Spring and Spiritual Growth
Guest Blog by Rev. Dr. Candace Adams Spring is just around the corner. It is a season marked by new life and growth. After the dark days of winter, springtime is a welcome relief. As [...]
Get Out
By Eddie Pipkin Tunnel vision, rabbit holes, wearing blinders, and being unable to see the forest for the trees. These are all ministry problems: we get so locked on a ministry perspective that we lose [...]
Spring Cleaning
By Eddie Pipkin It’s time for spring cleaning! At least where I live – you may have another few weeks to plan your spring cleaning projects before the weather catches up with your pent-up enthusiasm. [...]
For the Birds
By Eddie Pipkin Who knew that a filmmaker’s lessons from working with eight Australian magpies could be so useful for insights into leading ministry? When I was reading about director Glendyn Ivin’s work on the [...]
Stoke That Fire
By Eddie Pipkin I was out in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, and it was cold (duh!). It was perfect weather for sitting by the fire pit, and for the better part of the [...]
Super Team Secrets
By Eddie Pipkin I love inspirational sports stories and the lessons they offer us for leadership and perseverance. And if sports metaphors aren’t your thing, you can start rolling your eyes now, but it is [...]
Lenten Sacrifices for Leaders
By Eddie Pipkin I warned you in my Christmas parody poem that it would be Easter in no time at all, and here we are less than two weeks away from Ash Wednesday and the [...]
These Tangled Webs We Weave
By Eddie Pipkin This is the last in our January series, and the fourth in a series of blogs on how to avoid self-sabotage in our ministries. This week I wanted to revisit a topic [...]
Thanks, Obviously
By Eddie Pipkin This is the third week in our series about not sabotaging ourselves as we strive for excellence in ministry in 2021. Every January, for my wife and I, as documents arrive in [...]
Flippantly Glib
By Eddie Pipkin Part 2 of our January series on avoiding ministry self-sabotage presents a true story in which a leader whiffed when given an opportunity to engage an interested volunteer. All of the topics [...]
Anti-Sabotage
By Eddie Pipkin Resolution season is in full swing. I know this because the neighbor lady has renewed her back-patio sunrise workout routine, accompanied by an enthusiastically amplified, dance party playlist. God bless her in [...]
Squad Goals
By Eddie Pipkin It’s resolution time, like it or not! (Some of you love it, and some of you hate it, and for Methodists it’s a tradition anchored in John Wesley’s glorious Covenant Renewal Service [...]
The Night Before
By Eddie Pipkin Last Christmas season, way back in December of 2019 when life was whimsical and visions of ministry sugar plums danced in our unsuspecting heads, I wrote a paraphrase of Clement Clarke Moore’s [...]
Pukka Peace
By Eddie Pipkin Christmas is a time for stories. At the Pipkin household we’ve been firing up a cup of hot cocoa and working our way through some of our favorite movies and T.V. specials. [...]
The Gift of Absence
By Eddie Pipkin I have written a lot in this space about the gift of presence: the simple power of being physically present for one another. But occasionally – and this may be one of [...]
Holiday Combo
By Eddie Pipkin I spent Thanksgiving in Miami with our friend Chiny, and I was reminded once again that she is the “queen of hospitality,” a model for all of us who would welcome guests [...]
Tip o’ the Capotain
By Eddie Pipkin We here at Excellence in Ministry Coaching wish you a blessed and happy Thanksgiving, no matter how you are celebrating in modified fashion in this strange and awkward year. We are grateful [...]
Caroling to the Rescue
By Eddie Pipkin We write a lot about new ideas, new technology, and new approaches to leadership and ministry. We love to talk about shaking up the old ways and flipping old habits topsy-turvy, but [...]
Happy Thanksboosting!
By Eddie Pipkin Hold on to your pilgrim hats, but Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I always like to write a blog about celebrating gratitude (and I know you’re thankful to hear it). [...]
Mall Nostalgia
By Eddie Pipkin We love what we know, and the familiar brings comfort. Nostalgia is a powerful force – embedded in memory and tinged with a sense of “the way things were meant to be” [...]
Underdogs
By Eddie Pipkin If you’re like my friend, Gregg, you might be so caught up in the nonstop news that you missed the fact that there was a World Series this past week. I love [...]
Spiritual Wellness: Gearing Up for the Journey
Guest Blog by Rev. Dr. Candace Adams The act of embarking on a journey is often marked with anticipation and excitement. There is something about an adventure that naturally stirs us out of our complacency. [...]
Talk to Me
By Eddie Pipkin I came across an article on the Medium website last week that I thought got to the heart of getting to know people. Its author has discovered “the one perfect question” to [...]
Cubbyhole Theology
By Eddie Pipkin Here in Florida we take a good bit of ribbing when fall rolls around. We get tons of texts from our more northern pals featuring hillsides of vivid leaf color. I like [...]
Masks as Metaphor
By Eddie Pipkin Masks have been in the news a lot. Wearing them or not wearing them – which early in the pandemic seemed like a straightforward, simple option to maximize protection from the virus [...]
Wedding Lessons
By Eddie Pipkin My son got married last weekend. It was a beautiful day, an event they will remember for a lifetime. But it wasn’t the day they envisioned when they were in the midst [...]
Zoom Master
By Eddie Pipkin Last week we took a look at the different strategies involved in successfully leading virtual gatherings (and how the skill set for leading virtually can be different than the skill set for [...]
Remote Control
By Eddie Pipkin As we have shifted from in-person to virtual interactions in the last six months, we have had to make all manner of style adjustments, and we have stumbled into all sorts of [...]
Custom Disciples — Coaches & Mentors
By Eddie Pipkin Over the past three weeks I’ve broken down and expanded some of the concepts around the flexibility of discipleship initiatives for local churches that Phil and I highlight in our new Disciple [...]
Customizable Discipleship Part 2
By Eddie Pipkin We began a discussion in last week’s blog about setting up a discipleship initiative using the principles established in the recently published book that Dr. Phil Maynard and I co-authored, Disciple Like [...]
Customizable Discipleship Now
By Eddie Pipkin We’ve written a lot (a very lot) about accountable discipleship. If we are the Chick-fil-A of ministry development and strategy, then discipleship resources are our Original Chicken Sandwich with a side of [...]
The Sine Qua Non of Ingenuity
By Eddie Pipkin It’s an adage so ancient that nobody really knows who first uttered it. In Latin, it’s “Mater atrium necessitas” (“The mother of invention is necessity”). Plato wrote, “Our need will be the [...]
Beat the Dog Days
By Eddie Pipkin This isn’t the first time I’ve written about the “dog days of summer.” Metaphorically speaking, they are the hottest, most humid, most energy-sucking and lethargy-producing days of the year (and an actual [...]
Spiritual Wellness Journey: Guest EMC3 Blog
By Rev. Dr. Candace Adams Most people know that they should have an annual physical. Typically, a physical includes an exam and blood work. These two components provide a medical doctor with critical information regarding [...]
Stuck Stuck Stuck
Principle Centered Ministry — Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Eddie Pipkin Well, here we are! July’s almost done; fall is right around the corner. Did you make it on that vacation you’d been planning? [...]
The One Question
Principle Centered Ministry — Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Eddie Pipkin Phil and I were having some socially distanced coffee and catching up last week, when I was reminded of a statistical anomaly that [...]
What About Bob?
Principle Centered Ministry — Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Eddie Pipkin I was out for a run, midday Monday, headphones in my ears streaming the latest grim news, my thoughts on the no-end-in-sight frustration [...]
Riding the Waves
Principle Centered Ministry — Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Eddie Pipkin I’m at the beach with the family this week, and one of my favorite things to do there is boogie board with the [...]
Give Young People the Floor
By Eddie Pipkin Welcome back to the blog after a brief summertime hiatus. Hope you are finding some rest, relaxation, and revival, but the apocalyptic news keeps rolling in, and the normal routine of the [...]
How Will We Respond?
Principle Centered Ministry -- Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Eddie Pipkin and Phil Maynard With demonstrations happening in more than 140 American cities over the past week, coronavirus has been pushed off the front [...]
Discipleship Dilemma
Principle Centered Ministry -- Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Phil Maynard and Eddie Pipkin The “new normal” of the pandemic has changed things a lot, but it has not changed the central mission of [...]
Adaptive Worship
Principle Centered Ministry -- Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Phil Maynard and Eddie Pipkin We were intrigued by the series of stories that appeared at the end of March and beginning of April that [...]
Friends Matter Now
Principle-Centered Ministry -- Guiding Principles for Challenging Times By Phil Maynard and Eddie Pipkin There have been plenty of headlines in the past couple of weeks about “getting back to normal” – and let’s face [...]
To Meme Or Not To Meme
By Eddie Pipkin To meme or not to meme: that is the question! Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous repostings or take arms against a sea of [...]
Make a Sign
By Eddie Pipkin The past few weeks we have been focusing heavily on “virtual” ideas and strategies for ministry. But now, in the immortal words sung by Olivia Newton John way back in 1981, “let’s [...]
Data Mining as Discipleship
By Eddie Pipkin I hope you’re getting that traditional post-Easter rest, and I also hope you’re not! Sorry for the head fake, but these are unusual times. On the one hand, please, all ministry leaders [...]
Beyond Virtual Walls
By Eddie Pipkin As we continue to find a way forward in this unprecedented crisis, it’s been inspiring to see local churches find creative ways to stay connected to their congregations and keep members of [...]
No Crisis Wasted
By Eddie Pipkin Rahm Emmanuel, former Obama presidency chief of staff and Chicago mayor from 2011 to 2019, was perhaps most famous for this quote: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. It’s [...]
Apocalypse Adaptations
By Eddie Pipkin Greetings, brave new pioneers in the age of creative adaptation. You are responding with creativity to the perplexing paradox of this pandemic, to wit: Right when circumstances banish us from physical proximity [...]
What Now?
By Eddie Pipkin Three weeks ago, on February 27th, I wrote a speculative blog about the potential effects of a COVID-19 outbreak. That seems like a lifetime ago. What I wrote then felt a little [...]
Nuclear Decay
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about reconceiving men’s ministry, based on societal shifts in the concept of “manhood” and what it means to be a man/husband/father. On the heels of that rumination, a [...]
Man, Oh Man
By Eddie Pipkin I recently had coffee with the talented and thoughtful worship leader at the local church my wife and I have been attending. What I had seen of his public persona I liked [...]
Coronavirus Chaos
By Eddie Pipkin As the coronavirus outbreak (now known by the more precise name given to this unique strain, COVID-19) slips past the emergency efforts to control its transmission, it is becoming more and more [...]
Proactive vs. Reactive
By Eddie Pipkin I was in a Cracker Barrel off I-75 in Georgia earlier this week, making a pit stop, when I encountered an unusual appeal to find salvation and assure my entry to Heaven. [...]
Generosity as Stability
By Eddie Pipkin As we conclude our series on discipleship made relevant for modern culture, I saved for the finale what I think of as one of our most hopeful and practical assertions. For people [...]
Openness as Adventure
By Eddie Pipkin As we arrive at the penultimate week of our blog series on revelatory discipleship strategies, we consider the fear faced by people who are interested in the concept of spirituality but frightened [...]
Obedience as Freedom
By Eddie Pipkin As we continue our series exploring the pursuit of discipleship and its awesome practical results for people seeking a meaningful and well-ordered life, this week we’ll consider the topic of obedience. If [...]
Worship as Lifestyle
By Eddie Pipkin This is part-the-third of our five-part 2020 kickoff in the blogosphere in which we are looking at the elements of discipleship as they fulfill the needs of those seeking purpose and power [...]
Service as Purpose
By Eddie Pipkin In part two of our five-part blog series kick-off to 2020, we’ll continue to look at the ways in which the development of Discipleship skills are the path to a full life [...]
Hospitality as Relationships
By Eddie Pipkin I previewed a new series last week in which we would consider the elements of discipleship and how, when fully realized, they fulfill the basic needs in the modern search for meaning. [...]
New Year’s Wishes
By Eddie Pipkin and Phil Maynard It’s been a great year at Excellence in Ministry Coaching. Phil has traveled the country working with leadership and congregations to revitalize and grow their ministries, hearing your stories, [...]
The Day After
By Eddie Pipkin Merry post-Christmas from the gang at EMC3! We hope your holidays have been glorious, blessed with the joy of work well done, and we trust that you’re enjoying a well-earned rest. I’ve [...]
Have Yourself an Authentic Little Christmas
By Eddie Pipkin When checking out a recently published article about how families decide whether to choose an artificial Christmas tree or a live version, I was fascinated to read about the evolving nature of [...]
More New Metrics
By Eddie Pipkin I made the mistake last week of stepping on the bathroom scale. I am a big believer in not cramping the festive spirit of the Christmas season with such foolishness as scientific [...]
Gratitude and Generosity
By Eddie Pipkin On the heels of Thanksgiving, my inbox included a gift of an article which detailed the science behind the link between gratitude and giving. There is increasing research that corroborates – and [...]
Happy Thanks-Griping
By Eddie Pipkin Traditionally, we embrace this season of family, friends, and glorious food by counting our blessings. We gather together in celebration of one another and the good things in life. We are thoughtful [...]
The New Metrics
By Eddie Pipkin In our recent “no fences” blog series, in which we explored the many ways we can make ministry more accessible to more people, I boldly stated a premise that we needed a [...]
Even Fewer Fences
By Eddie Pipkin In my blogs in the previous two weeks, we have been exploring the ways in which our formulaic ministry thinking can corral us (and those we work with) in unhealthy ways. We [...]
No Fences
By Eddie Pipkin In last week’s blog entry, “Don’t Fence Me In,” I pointed out the ways in which we constrict individualized spiritual growth with our fixed structures of programs and events. While structure is [...]
Don’t Fence Me In
By Eddie Pipkin Did you ever have one of those forms to fill out where they ask you to write an answer in that sequence of boxes, one letter per box, but your answer is [...]
Up Close and Personal
By Eddie Pipkin A local non-profit theater group emailed me with an opportunity to join one of their executives, a director, and some performers for dinner at a local restaurant. It was a way to [...]
Fashionable Leadership Advice
By Eddie Pipkin Confession time: I have zero sense of fashion. Well, maybe zero is too favorable a score – maybe it would be a negative number would be more honest. I basically have one [...]
Learn Something New (Now)
By Eddie Pipkin Last week, I wrote about creativity sparked by looking at things from a new perspective. My wife -- who is excellent in her IT management role but would not describe herself as [...]
So Long, Comfort Zone
By Eddie Pipkin Some years back, I co-founded a pre-youth group for 4th and 5th graders. That age group gets a little lost between the normal children’s ministry offerings for little kids and the youth [...]
Dare to Doodle
By Eddie Pipkin I’m a doodler. In a former life, I drew quite a bit. I actually made a few bucks drawing political cartoons back in the day. I honed this skill in, of all [...]
Busted
By Eddie Pipkin My wife and I went out to breakfast before church last weekend, and we stopped in at one of our favorite diners, a bustling, homey spot. We had just settled in with [...]
Everybody’s Got a Storm
By Eddie Pipkin You savvy readers have long ago figured out that Excellence in Ministry Coaching is based out of central Florida (specifically, the east coast side), so we've been in Hurricane Dorian lockdown, counting [...]
Welcome . . . Really!
By Eddie Pipkin This week we feature another entry from Dr. Phil Maynard’s observations from the road! A few weeks ago, Phil (our intrepid leader) was on a break in the mountains of Western North [...]
Say My Name
By Eddie Pipkin Phil Maynard, our esteemed leader here at Excellence in Ministry Coaching, was recently conducting a workshop at Virginia Beach and had the good fortune to be hosted at The Cavalier, a luxury [...]
Making Friends (Part 2)
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I wrote about the need for friendships – now more than ever – and how the local church can be a great way to help people bond in deep relationships. [...]
Making Friends
By Eddie Pipkin As we plan fall campus events and outreach efforts, mission projects, and seasonal music productions, let’s not forget one of the core things needed by people who are hurting and seeking connection [...]
The Future of Work
By Eddie Pipkin The BBC has a great website called Worklife 101 that they describe as “a global round-up of the people, ideas, and things at the forefront of the new world of work.” It [...]
That Ol’ Summer Slump
By Eddie Pipkin After attending a recent mid-summer worship service, I was asked by the pastor-in-charge if I thought the energy in the room felt a little low. He had been challenged by the obviously [...]
Moon Shot
By Eddie Pipkin As we mark the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first steps on the moon, it is a great time to reflect on the power of an unambiguous vision. Although the U.S. space program [...]
Oops!
By Eddie Pipkin It was shortly after my blog from last week landed in my own inbox when I noticed that – in a blog in which I repeatedly mentioned the importance of always having [...]
As American As Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
By Eddie Pipkin Richard Montañez’s rise from janitor to respected global food company executive is American as it gets. He took an idea, backed by hard work and belief, and turned it into an inspirational [...]
Unexpected Insight
By Eddie Pipkin Last week, I was is in the small, remote Colorado mountain town of Ouray. As I wandered the hilly streets one morning just after dawn, I came across a grassy hillside with [...]
Waiting
By Eddie Pipkin Earlier this week, I had to make an unexpected trip to the doctor’s office. They had been kind enough to squeeze me in for a same-day appointment, but it ended up being [...]
In My Humble Opinion
By Eddie Pipkin We are a bunch of know-it-alls. If we’ve been around a long time, we have it all figured out by virtue of years of hard-won experience. If, on the other hand, we [...]
Ambivert Power!
By Eddie Pipkin Church ministry is dominated by extroverts. Glad-handers, dramatic speakers, hip youth leaders, charismatic worship directors, and electrifying teachers who hold rooms spellbound are all superstars in their respective local congregations. In an [...]
Hole in the Fence
By Eddie Pipkin Recently I was at a new-to-me commuter rail station. The train platform backs up to a major strip mall with a Walmart and dozens of shops and restaurants that have been there [...]
Breaking Breakfast
By Eddie Pipkin Author Amanda Mull recently wrote about the unique approach of Americans to the first meal of the day, the one we know as breakfast. No culture on the planet has as restricted [...]
RHE Wisdom
By Eddie Pipkin I was saddened – as were many in the ministry community – by the tragic, unexpected death of Rachel Held Evans at just 37-years-old. Evans, a leading progressive voice of her generation, [...]
Breakfast with Norma
By Eddie Pipkin Whenever I travel, wherever I go, I’m always on the lookout for ministry inspiration. I am most inspired by the ministry principles that are demonstrated in what we would think of as [...]
Dad Humor
By Eddie Pipkin Even a super-serious organization like the Transportation Security Administration knows the power of a quirky social media presence to help “customers” forge a connection to their work. You know the TSA folks: [...]
Guest Blog: Road to Joy (Forgiveness)
By Tom Acey (An occasional guest blog exploring the discovery of the true joy in our lives for which we are intended) This blog is part of my series entitled The Road to Joy, in [...]
Legacy Ministry
By Eddie Pipkin Does what we build last? Watching the news from Paris this week was a reminder that even the sturdiest and most meaningful structures are impermanent. We spend countless hours crafting programs, planning [...]
What’s in Your Pantry?
By Eddie Pipkin Be prepared. Everybody knows the infamous Scout motto, but sometimes we miss its full meaning. We embrace the micro-planning part: plan, plan, plan down to the tiniest detail to make sure our [...]
Front Porch Therapy
By Eddie Pipkin I love reading the Houzz website for the latest in home decorating trends and landscaping. Anybody reading this who knows me will find this revelation hysterical, because I know absolutely nothing about [...]
Obviously
By Eddie Pipkin Food has been helping me formulate ideas this week. Raw peanuts spaghetti squash, and oyster po'boys have been the pathway to enlightenment. And I could drop some hints or set up a [...]
Guest Blog: Road to Joy (A New Outlook)
By Tom Acey (Guest Blogger -- an occasional, supplemental blog on living a life of joy) This blog is the sixth in my series entitled “The Road to Joy,” in which I have examined the nature of true joy, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit; in the series we have been looking closely at the steps we required to experience this true joy in our lives. These steps were outlined in the book The Applause of Heaven by Max Lucado, and they provide the perfect framework for what I call “awakening the joy within.” Each of these blogs delves into one of these seven steps.
Boredom, Frustration, and Grudges = Eureka!
By Eddie Pipkin Everybody tries their best to create a workplace atmosphere that resists boredom, frustration, and tension with ministry partners. But increasingly, those who study creativity and the processes that promote it are reaching [...]
Take It Outside
By Eddie Pipkin Spring has arrived . . . at least here in Florida. We had mid-80s and sunshine last week. On the other hand, my son is in Boston, and they were under another [...]
Optimistic Creativity
By Eddie Pipkin A recent special edition of Time Magazine was called “The Art of Optimism.” In an era of conflict, depressing news, and despair, the magazine’s reporters and editors and interviewed countless artists about [...]
Why Performance Reviews Must Die
By Eddie Pipkin Performance reviews! Everybody loves feedback from the boss (right?). And everybody loves a little constructive criticism (right?). There is no shortage of articles about the need for ministry institutions like the local [...]
The View from the Vestibule
By Eddie Pipkin - When I head home to Georgia, I usually spend Sunday morning at the little country church where I got married 32 years ago. Like most of us who worship anywhere on a regular basis, even if only occasionally, I have a familiar place where I sit: third row from the back, left side pew, on the aisle in this case.
The Connector
By Eddie Pipkin - When we talk about the importance of hospitality for local churches, we can easily get caught up in the discussion of welcome systems and welcome centers and welcome training and welcome gifts.
How Not To Be Stupid
By Eddie Pipkin - I love reading and writing about ideas, especially about processes (how things function and how we make decisions). Ministry work is exactly the same as other types of work, while simultaneously being utterly different. Sometimes business psychology transfers seamlessly, and sometimes it is upended by the special circumstances of the ministry environment, which has (or should have) inherently different priorities.
Guest Blog: Road to Joy (Part 3)
By Tom Acey (Guest Blogger -- an occasional, supplemental blog on living a life of joy) - This blog is the fourth in my series entitled “The Road to Joy,” in which I have examined the nature of true joy, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit; and I have begun looking at the steps we need to take to experience this true joy in our lives.
Good Thinking
By Eddie Pipkin - Former Navy SEAL Commander Jocko Willink had a habit of responding to his subordinates’ reports of unexpected crises with a word that irritated them until they got used to it: “Good,” he would say whenever they reported a missed supply drop, a busted piece of equipment, or an unfortunate weather forecast.
New Year Giving
By Eddie Pipkin - Because we like to donate to a variety of charitable causes, my wife and I received a slew of emails during the last couple of weeks of 2018. Non-profit groups are well aware of the volume of end-of-year giving (with some studies suggesting that charitable organizations receive as much as one-third of their donations in December and some 12% in the last three days of the year).
The 12 Days of Ministry
By Eddie Pipkin - Joy of the season to you all! And here's hoping you are taking a few days off, lounging about, bloated with baked goodies, enjoying friends and family (and not fishing too many newly gifted drones out of too many trees). And I definitely hope you are not working.
Charlie Brown Ministry
By Eddie Pipkin - This blog is about Charlie Brown ministry. Charlie Brown ministry is when you take something that has been overlooked, ignored, discarded, rejected or otherwise not appreciated and instead make it the focus of your attention, thereby giving it beauty in the process.
First Steps on the Road to Joy (Part 2)
By Tom Acey (Guest Blogger -- an occasional, supplemental blog on living a life of joy) - This guest blog is the third in my series entitled, “The Road to Joy,” in which I have examined the nature of true joy, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit; we’ve been looking at the practical steps we need to take to experience this true joy in our lives.
Simply Christmas
By Eddie Pipkin - Advent and Christmas are upon us – one of those “Superbowl seasons” in the life of the local congregation. We are caught up in a flurry of events and activities which mirrors the societal chaos of the holidays. On the one hand, there is a natural hunger for reconnection to the church this time of year, a perfect platform for inviting people in and giving them opportunities to engage.
The Personal Touch
By Eddie Pipkin - I confess. My family still mails out old-school Christmas cards with a goofy pictures and a handwritten note on the back. I know; we run the risk of being labelled Luddites.
In Gratitude
By Eddie Pipkin - A friend of mine who owns a small business told me a story about an employee and ingratitude. He’d hired the guy so he could learn a trade, and the guy was doing pretty good work for the company. One afternoon this guy decided to fix an issue with one of the company trucks, and his employer thanked him for his initiative, to which this fellow replied, “You can just add the invoice amount for the repair to my regular paycheck.”
‘One Thing’ Thinking
By Eddie Pipkin - Ministry leaders juggling a thousand priorities at once (especially in the next six weeks) should take hope in the power of focusing on “the one big thing.”
Bonsai Thinking
By Eddie Pipkin - Recently touring Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia, I was perusing the bonsai exhibit, enchanted by this diminutive crape myrtle in the picture. I knew that the art and technique of bonsai was based on patience and a meticulous attention to detail.
First Steps on the Road to Joy
By Tom Acey (Guest Blogger -- an occasional, supplemental blog on living a life of joy) - Previously we learned that Joy is a state of being and that joy is NOT synonymous with happiness. Being joyful is the foremost manifestation of the power of Christ’s love working within our lives. We also discussed the “steps” outlined by Pastor Max Lucado in his book, The Applause of Heaven.
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs
By Eddie Pipkin - I was in an artsy resort town in the hills, stopping off for lunch at this little café on the side of the road when I saw this “Park in a Circle” sign. The parking area was out back, a small gravel lot with a narrow alley access, and the owners had decided the circle parking option was the best way to get people in and out without blocking anybody.
Stuck with a Dog
By Eddie Pipkin - I have a dilemma: I got stuck with a dog. He’s a nice dog, a Corgi (just like the queen’s dogs), full of personality and smart, but willful. He belongs to my son and his fiancée – wonderful young people who moved to Boston for graduate school, and they love this dog, but the available housing options in their new location didn’t allow for them to include their adorable doggy friend;
Why Life Is Great at the Super 8
By Eddie Pipkin - On my recent multi-week road trip, I stayed at a wide variety of places, some decidedly more upscale than others. I spent time in a little cabin/lodge, nicely appointed motel “suites,” on a luxury air mattress, crashing on a couple of couches, and I even had my first Airbnb experience (a historic room in a former TB hospital in Saranac Lake, New York).
Stand Out
By Eddie Pipkin - On a recent visit to Toronto’s harbor front, I saw two manifestations of interactive public art – one mobile, one permanent – that got me to thinking about the ways that churches can create communal public spaces.
Event Evaluation
By Eddie Pipkin - We have entered the season in which fall festivals, autumn carnivals, pumpkin patches, and trunk-or-treats are popular, so it’s a good time to reflect on what makes an event engage the community in meaningful ways.
Challenge Accepted
By Eddie Pipkin - How to build a non-traditional, accountable group of young believers whose journey towards deepening discipleship is not based predominately on Sunday morning worship attendance? Time for you to help me figure that out.
The Road to Joy
By Tom Acey (Guest Blogger) - As Christians, we are expected to reflect joy in our daily lives, including our personal relationships. But what is joy exactly? Webster’s dictionary defines joy as “The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good.”
What That Looks Like Now
By Eddie Pipkin - I have a friend who likes to tease me about my go-to poke-you-with-a-stick question in any brainstorming conversation: “Yeah, but what does that LOOK like?” Ideas are fine, but they fizzle out on the brainstorming board if they can’t be given flesh and bone structure. Concepts must move to the stage of practical details. Vision requires form and function.
Time Out
By Eddie Pipkin - Here we are at the end of a busy summer (well, here I am at the end of a busy summer – maybe you had a slow-paced, recharge kind of a summer instead of a summer full of logistical adventures and family transitions – if so, you are probably gearing up right now for a frenetically-paced fall). Either way, the Labor Day weekend is a good time to take stock at how we’re doing at the discipline of the slowdown.
If Sermons Were Like TED Talks
By Eddie Pipkin I was recently leading a small group spiritual study and referenced a TED Talk, at which point I realized that none of the folks at the table with me had any idea [...]
Missing In Action
By Eddie Pipkin Is it easier to revive old friendships or to make totally new friends? (Struggling retailers would ask a different version of this question: Is it easier to reconnect with former customers or [...]
The Turnaround
By Eddie Pipkin To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of the church have been greatly exaggerated. For those of us who work regularly with struggling congregations and church revitalization, there is a [...]
Faux Busy
By Eddie Pipkin My adult son is back home for a few short weeks before he heads off to the Northeast for a couple of years for graduate school. He has been kind enough to [...]
Forging Ministry Together
By Eddie Pipkin I had a great time recently hanging out for the weekend with my young friend, Harry. He lives in Miami, with access to a 5-acre ranchette on the edge of the Everglades [...]
Talk Less, Listen More
By Eddie Pipkin I’ve had some great opportunities this summer to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a very long time, including long lost relatives from Texas and some old ministry friends. We’ve [...]
When People Complain
By Eddie Pipkin I was on a summer road trip during the 4th of July week. We had to stop for dinner somewhere in South Carolina, and someone suggested Bojangles (yum, spicy chicken ‘n biscuit). [...]
How Not to Be Bored
By Eddie Pipkin Here we’ve arrived at one of the prominent holiday getaway weeks of the summer, and I hope you are getting some downtime with family and friends – I know how hard it [...]
Holy Grammar
By Eddie Pipkin I was reading the weekly email from Christianity Today editor Mark Galli, and he linked an article at Mockingbird from Andrew Taylor-Troutman called, “Comma, Grace.” I’m a diction, punctuation, and grammar geek [...]
Ministry Belly Flops
By Eddie Pipkin Recently, a revitalizing commercial district near my house tried out a temporary road diet. If you don’t know what that is, and you’re too busy to follow the explanatory link, it’s a [...]
Fun with Horoscopes
By Eddie Pipkin I’m one of the 14 people left who read the local paper every morning while I drink my coffee. Granted, I read it on my phone, so there’s that tip of the [...]
Sidewalk Maintenance
By Eddie Pipkin I love looking at things closely, analyzing the details. (It’s a practice that feels faithful to last week’s blog about creative curiosity like Leonardo da Vinci lived out.) But practiced a little [...]
Lessons from Leonardo
By Eddie Pipkin I have been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and I highly recommend it. (It is on Bill Gates’ touted summer reading list, so I feel like I’m in good [...]
The Joy of Inventing Useless Things
By Eddie Pipkin Performance anxiety is real. And it cripples ministry large and small. From preachers who stick to rote formulas for sermons to leadership teams that are unwilling to explore new ideas, ministries regularly [...]
Land of the Lonely
By Eddie Pipkin Loneliness is in the news again. In a world in which we are constantly connected in ways previous generations could never have imagined, people still report feeling lonely. As church leaders argue [...]
Stop Sabotaging Yourself
By Eddie Pipkin I was attending a local church service last weekend, a lovely worship service offered by a great congregation that is currently sponsoring the kinds of ministry typical of neighborhood congregations this time [...]
Creativity Rules
By Eddie Pipkin Do you think of yourself as creative? If you are involved in ministry, there is some aspect of your day-to-day work that involves creativity. Maybe you are a worship leader or communications [...]
Gettin’ Hitched
By Eddie Pipkin A pastoral friend recently made a trip to provide some pre-marital counseling to a couple whose wedding service he is officiating a few months from now. I did not really know what [...]
Arts for All
By Eddie Pipkin When I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, I happened to end up at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the home of the Episcopal Diocese of New [...]
Who Counts?
By Eddie Pipkin I recently had a friend who offered to help out with an aspect of worship leadership at his local church. It was a church he had been a part of for many [...]
Metrics That Matter
By Eddie Pipkin Maybe you have time scheduled for a nap after the glorious chaos of Holy Week. Hopefully, you are getting some time to recharge, rest up, and revel in the exciting ministry you [...]
Ask a Bartender
By Eddie Pipkin I have a good friend, a ministry friend, who has a dream of opening what he calls “ChurchBar.” In his vision it would be an operational bar during regular business hours and [...]
Wear It Out
By Eddie Pipkin I said goodbye this week to my old friend, my 2002 Honda Odyssey minivan. It had served me and my family well, veteran of hundreds of road trips, including a few full-on, [...]
Wilhelm Scream Strategy
By Eddie Pipkin Last week I was introduced to the “Wilhelm scream.” I consider myself a pretty well-informed cultural geek, especially as concerns all things Star Wars, but this sound effect which has been a [...]
Saving Lives
By Eddie Pipkin Following the shootings in Parkland, Florida, I found myself struggling to understand the ways in which local congregations can meaningfully respond to such tragedies. Certainly, churches have continued to fill their historic [...]
Restaurant Blues
By Eddie Pipkin This week, a couple of restaurant tales to emphasize ministry mistakes to be avoided.. First, my friend Jeff’s attempt to meet me at a local burger bar. My friend (Jeff, as noted) [...]
Magical Feedback
By Eddie Pipkin I recently read an interesting article about feedback. It focused on the secrets to long term organizational success and how to build a culture that consistently achieves this elusive goal. Even with [...]
Inreach, Outreach, and Events
By Eddie Pipkin Churches plan community events on a regular basis. That is, they plan events that they refer to as “community events.” In reality, many of these events—if not most of them—are actually congregationally-focused [...]
The Hazards of Churchspeak
By Eddie Pipkin I had an experience at breakfast on Saturday morning that reminded me of the way ministry leaders routinely make references to topics to which non-church-goers and new-ministry-participants may be oblivious. When we [...]
Right-sized Staff
By Eddie Pipkin Churches everywhere—all denominations, all geographic locations, all cultural contexts—are composed of a combination of paid staff and volunteer leaders. One of the great questions that each individual congregation must answer for itself [...]
The Backup
By Eddie Pipkin A week ago, football fans were treated to an instant classic: a showdown for the national collegiate championship between the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide. I watched the game with keen [...]
The Exodus 18 Leadership Initiative
By Eddie Pipkin It’s a new year and a new day here at Excellence in Ministry Coaching. We’re launching a new interactive on-line training curriculum called the Exodus 18 Leadership Initiative. It takes the best [...]
Rested and Resolved
By Eddie Pipkin Happy New Year, everybody! Here’s hoping you had a great couple of weeks, catching up with family and friends, celebrating joyfully, and maybe even enjoying a couple of days of downtime. As [...]
2017 Year in Review
By Eddie Pipkin December 22, 2017 This blog, which will close out my entries for the tumultuous year that was 2017, will be the 46th blog I have shared with you in the past 12 [...]
My Ministry Christmas Wish List
By Eddie Pipkin December 18th, 2017 I thought I would share my Christmas wish list this year (since it’s not too late to get my Christmas wishes delivered if you choose “express” delivery NOW—hahaha). Just [...]
All is Calm – Yeah, Right!
By Eddie Pipkin December 8, 2017 Having written last week about the value of strategic stress within an organization, I realized how ironic it was to be writing such an article at exactly the moment [...]
The Right Kind of Stress Encourages Innovation
By Eddie Pipkin December 4, 2017 This week I am sharing some great links from the non-ministry world on insights to strategic creativity and innovation. One of the things I really enjoy doing with this [...]
Millennials and Mentors
By Eddie Pipkin November 21, 2017 A couple of weeks ago, long-distance runner Shalane Flanagan won the New York City Marathon, the first American woman to do so in 40 years (with an impressive time [...]
Gratitude as Leadership Strategy
By Eddie Pipkin November 17, 2017 Happy Thanksgiving! I begin this blog by expressing my thanks to all of you who read regularly. It is a privilege to write for you every week, and we [...]
Stewardship Done Better, Part 2
By Eddie Pipkin November 10, 2017 Continuing our discussion of stewardship season from last week, it wouldn’t hurt us to take some valuable lessons from secular nonprofits. There are thousands of community organizations out there [...]
Stewardship Done Better
By Eddie Pipkin November 3, 2017 It’s that time of year when many churches are undertaking their annual stewardship campaigns. Although helping congregants build a lifestyle of biblical generosity is one of the core elements [...]
What Rocket? Missing the Seemingly Obvious
By Eddie Pipkin October 27, 2017 Do you ever feel like God is doing amazing things in your local ministry, but you just can’t seem to get anybody to pay attention? Sure, the few people [...]
Finding Our Niche
By Eddie Pipkin October 20, 2017 Bigger is not always better. I am a fan of the so-called second tier attractions here in Orlando where I work and live. We are famous for our theme [...]
The Church and Mental Health
By Eddie Pipkin October 16, 2017 My teenage nephews visited me last week during their fall break, and it was a great opportunity to quiz them (as I routinely do all young folk) on the [...]
Passive Aggressive Customer Service
By Eddie Pipkin October 9, 2017 Have you had an experience of passive-aggressive customer service? Everybody understands the concept of good customer service. Most everybody in ministry agrees that it’s crass to think of congregants [...]
Churches as the Next Town Square
By Eddie Pipkin October 2, 2017 What if churches were more than clubhouses for select memberships? What if churches were community gathering spots where people converged to learn, grow, help one another and hang out [...]
If They Don’t Get It, It’s Our Fault
By Eddie Pipkin September 22, 2017 I love conversations with 20-somethings. They can be inspiring, eye-opening, hopeful, and—on occasion—a stinging reminder of how we as ministry leaders have blown it. Take, for instance, the fundamental [...]
Nuns, Chainsaws, and Disaster Response
By Eddie Pipkin September 18, 2017 So, here I am again, writing about churches and disaster response, only this time from a city in which, a week after Irma blew through, there are still some [...]
Harvey as Reality and Metaphor
By Eddie Pipkin September 1, 2017 As the tragedy of Hurricane Harvey unfolded last week, it was inspiring, as always, to watch the ways in which local congregations responded to the needs of the community. [...]
Party in the Moment, Port in a Storm
By Eddie Pipkin August 26, 2017 Last week I was lucky enough to stay with friends in North Georgia to catch the total eclipse. It was, as advertised, a once-in-a-lifetime spectacular. Beyond the personal experience [...]
The Click That Satisfies
By Eddie Pipkin August 18, 2017 A fancy web page is only as useful as its functionality. This is not news to you. It’s certainly not news to the billionaire geeks who founded revolutionary platforms [...]
Loneliness and the Church
By Eddie Pipkin August 11, 2017 I have spent this week home alone. Other family members have been travelling, and I have had the house to myself, which as a certified introvert, I really enjoy [...]
Comfort, Discomfort, and Millenials
By Eddie Pipkin August 4, 2017 This week at my regular Tuesday morning Bible study, we discussed the balance between “comfort” and “discomfort” for people who have chosen to be a part of local congregations, [...]
Not Just Going with the Flow
By Eddie Pipkin July 28, 2017 Downspouts and drains have been on my mind a lot lately. I had a longstanding issue with water runoff at my house that I decided to tackle earlier this [...]
Do You Belong?
By Eddie Pipkin July 21, 2017 On my visit to Oslo, Norway, I was walking across a pedestrian bridge into one of the city’s bright new architecturally exciting neighborhoods, when I noticed a phrase painted [...]
Downtime is Holy Time
By Eddie Pipkin July 14, 2017 I write this week’s blog as I’m preparing to depart for somewhere else. A different physical location for sure (one with fjords and Viking ships—and I don’t mean a [...]
Mindful Summer
By Eddie Pipkin July 7, 2017 I write this blog from Butler Beach in northeast Florida. It’s the height of summer and for many folks in ministry, things slow down a few notches (that is, [...]
Culture Clash
By Eddie Pipkin June 30, 2017 Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO and central personality, was recently forced to step down, shining a harsh spotlight on his abrasive leadership style. With the ride share company floundering, one [...]
Community Hangout
By Eddie Pipkin June 23, 2017 When our kids were younger, we were one of those houses that was the neighborhood hangout. There was always a gaggle of kids splashing in the pool, bouncing happily [...]
How to Conversate
By Eddie Pipkin June 16, 2017 In a world with lots of options, one of the things that sets local faith communities apart is the opportunity they provide for the creation of authentic community. People [...]
Free Plants…Psych!
By Eddie Pipkin June 10, 2017 I was walking through a neighborhood of shops recently when I came across a local garden center with this sign posted on the entry gate: “Free Plants for Sale.” [...]
Subway Celebration
By Eddie Pipkin June 5, 2017 You might have come across the story of the “subway graduation,” Jerich Marco Alcantara’s feel-good tale of a thwarted graduation ceremony which was salvaged by some creative thinking and [...]
How Elon Sees the World
By Eddie Pipkin May 26, 2017 I have a 20-something friend who is obsessed with all things Elon Musk. You will have heard of Mr. Musk, entrepreneur, visionary, multi-billionaire shifter of paradigms: builder of cars, [...]
Roadside Couch
By Eddie Pipkin May 19, 2017 I have lately been obsessed by couches on the side of the road. It began as a gag: my son is searching for a house to rent with several [...]
What I Learned on the Bike
By Eddie Pipkin May 10, 2017 This past weekend I went on a long biker ride with some good friends. It’s a ride we do every year to help raise money for multiple sclerosis research. [...]
The Secrets of Jeep Beach
By Eddie Pipkin May 1, 2017 I spent this past Sunday morning on Daytona Beach with 2,300 other Jeep owners. It’s called Jeep Beach. The local Jeep owners club hosts it every year, and not [...]
Free Chicken
By Eddie Pipkin April 25, 2017 Free grilled chicken samples! Who would walk by tasty, mouth-watering, fresh, and did we mention FREE, fresh-off-the-grill chicken samples? And yet, people do. It’s almost as unbelievable a situation [...]
Easter Hangover
By Eddie Pipkin April 18, 2017 So, hello ministry friends. Easter has again come and gone, and are you finding yourself refreshed, invigorated, renewed, and excited in the aftermath of Christianity’s Superbowl Sunday – or [...]
The Rise of Robot Coffee
By Eddie Pipkin April 11, 2017 Technology is changing the world in which we live. This process is happening so fast that it’s hard to keep up. One of the great debates in ministry circles [...]
Story Power
By Eddie Pipkin April 1, 2017 Michael Sharp was killed in the Congo last week. Who?, you might understandably be asking, absorbed in the daily barrage of news from Trumpland, reports of bombings and terrorist [...]
No Left Turns
By Eddie Pipkin March 24, 2017 It turns out that sometimes the most obvious option is not the best option. Sometimes the decision that seems most straightforward is not the one that produces the best [...]
Insights From Out Of This World
By Eddie Pipkin March 19, 2017 What can ministry leaders learn from astronauts? Although we don’t travel in their high adventure orbits (see what I did there?), it turns out there’s a lot we can [...]
The iiwii Audit
By Eddie Pipkin March 10, 2017 In our coaching and training sessions, it doesn’t take very long for participants to share frustrations in their ministries that seem insurmountable. Lack of power to effect change, lack [...]
Noticing the Small Things
By Eddie Pipkin March 4, 2017 It is my habit on Tuesday mornings to attend a breakfast Bible and book study in a small town near my home. We meet early, 6:00 a.m., and when [...]
Meaningful Mashups
By Eddie Pipkin February 24, 2017 Every February my son and I head to Gainesville, Florida for the Hoggtowne Medieval Faire ( “step back in time and cheer on jousting knights, wander through the medieval marketplace [...]
You Talking To Me?
By Eddie Pipkin February 17, 2017 What is your ministry language? Were you aware that you had one? There are many in ways in which our ministries are plagued by an inability to understand one [...]
Ten Meter Tower
By Eddie Pipkin February 9, 2017 How do we help people make the leap? How do we help them experience the thrill of trying out a small group, serving at a homeless shelter, joining us [...]
The Missing Piece
By Phil Maynard February 3, 2017 I have been a fan of Alan Hirsch since early in his work with the missional movement in America. In his book, The Forgotten Ways, Alan describes the 4 [...]