Blog

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

(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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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).  [...]

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” [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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?  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.”

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.”

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. 

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.

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.

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;

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). 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.”

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.

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. 

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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).  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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) [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]