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 is how to leverage technology to enhance ministry connections without trivializing the work that we do. There is no official [...]
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 attacks, and the usual onslaught of depressing details from around the globe. But Michael Sharp was a hero. The kind [...]
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 long term outcome. And sometimes a detour is the unlikely path to ultimate success. You may not know this, but [...]
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 learn from the insights of space pioneers. When International Space Station crew member Scott Kelly returned last fall from a [...]
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 of ideas, lack of support, lack of hope: all are ingredients in a nasty stew of ‘stuck soup.’ We can [...]
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 we finish up it’s usually just about sunrise. Most Tuesdays, some friends and I will head over to the adjacent [...]
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 where hundreds of artisans sell their wares, witness a battle on the living chess board, partake in olde world games [...]
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 another (a frustration captured in the famous quote from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke: “What we have here is [...]
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 for a worship service, or giving a sacrificial gift? None of these things—none of these elements of ministry—are mandatory in [...]
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 P’s of Incarnational Ministry: presence, proximity, powerlessness, and proclamation. I think this is a terrific insight for both the missional [...]
