by Eddie Pipkin Image by AstralEmber from Pixabay It’s the 20th anniversary (more or less) of the invention of the Like button, the thumbs-up graphic used by Facebook and other social media platforms to show approval of a post. It’s hard to imagine a world in which we lived without an instantaneous, one-tap [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Elly from Pixabay It’s the time of year when we celebrate graduates. We pause our worship services to recognize those who have achieved academic success. We attend parties for those we know who have put in the work to earn that diploma. Or we might even have a [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Greg Reese from Pixabay We make a regular six-hour interstate drive up I-75 once a month. We trek up the infamous Interstate from central Florida to central Georgia and back again to visit my mom. We’ve been making that drive for many years, so we know it well, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Mark Thomas from Pixabay In case you missed it, a lawyer arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court last week got a standing ovation. First of all, that’s not a thing that happens in the hallowed halls of the nation’s most sacred courtroom. Secondly, the ovation was initiated by [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Peter H from Pixabay While I was travelling during Holy Week, I had an identical experience at two separate places of worship that threw me off kilter and made me wonder how much thought the good folks at both venues were giving to the experiences of drop-ins. On [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by 悍匪 社交 from Pixabay I’m in Virginia this week, visiting with an old friend who has changed things up by moving from the big city to a small bucolic town where she bought a 115-year-old house with great bones and quirky character. This friend has a sophisticated sense [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay I heard a good story recently from a pastor friend who had made time for parishioners who had requested an ‘urgent’ meeting. Their emergency? They were greatly concerned that the church he led isn’t “doing discipleship right.” As long as there has [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Anja from Pixabay It’s plenty easy to cruise along with something that’s “good enough.” Right now, I have a busted stereo in my 2002 Jeep, so I keep telling myself how awesome it is to ride along without the distraction of music or news, just my own thoughts [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash Perhaps you are familiar with the work of Arthur Brooks, author, academic, and researcher of the science of happiness. He has lots of practical advice about how to build a better life, and although his work with Oprah occasionally veers into woo-woo territory for [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Ivana Tomášková from Pixabay Last week I wrote about Starbucks and “forced joy,” a directive from corporate leadership that employees would express joyful interactions by writing encouraging messaging on customer cups. It didn’t work, because dictating employee happiness and enthusiasm rarely does. On the other hand, giving employees [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Did you see Starbucks in the news in recent weeks for adding an additional mandate to the responsibilities of employees? Beginning in January, according to an edict from CEO Brian Niccol, all baristas were required to add a handwritten comment to each beverage. A note of affirmation, a tasteful funny observation, or [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image used under Pixabay content license. I had designated the past couple of weeks to work on home projects. I am not known as a handy guy. I can get things done when needed, but I am not gifted in this department, and I don’t have much fun doing it. [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Perlinator from Pixabay I went to the county fair with my wife and my godson last week, and although we had gone mostly to check out the prize-winning chickens and sample some fried Oreos, we took advantage of some of the ‘free’ entertainment on the midway. Of course, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by StockSnap from Pixabay I’ve always been a Saturday Night Live fan, and I’ve been consuming comedy for most of the show’s tenure, so I really enjoyed the 50th anniversary special that aired last weekend. It was a star-studded event (featuring many of the kinds of mash-ups I wrote [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay I went to see the local opera company perform this week, and I had a great time. I realize that puts me squarely in the nichiest of niches a person can inhabit, culture wise. That’s why the opera folks are passionately invested in doing [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Chances are you are reading this blog on your smartphone. If so, it will have come to you by email, a now old-timey communications pathway. If you are a normal American, you will use that same smartphone for a chunk of today for scrolling. [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay There is always that one elusive personal goal, the thing you really want to accomplish but can’t ever seem to get done. Maybe it’s a fitness goal, maybe a writing goal, maybe a home improvement project, or if you’re a ministry professional or volunteer, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay I was watching a basketball game last week, a spirited back-and-forth between two evenly matched teams, and my team was ahead and had victory in their grasp. That is, until one of our players made a mind-boggling mistake, being whistled for taking longer than five [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay My wife and I were driving through mountainous terrain during Christmas vacation, and as we were rounding a windy corner, we saw a sign common to those parts: “Watch for Falling Rocks.” We’ve seen that sign plenty of times, but my wife was bemused on [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay My wife and I did not send Christmas cards this year. We've been mailing out season's greetings with adorable family photos for three-and-a-half decades, so that's a big change. The transition from old year to new year is often a time for big change [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Have you ever planned an event that went completely off the rails? Of course you have. We all have. For those of us who started out in youth ministry, we have a whole shelf full of stories of plans that went dramatically awry. We tell them in excruciating detail whenever we reunite [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by 1tamara2 from Pixabay I was reading about an emerging design trend for 2025 that sounded like something I could embrace: a concept called “pretty-ugly.” It’s not about intentionally including something discomfiting as part of the décor: “This isn’t about collecting aesthetic disasters—it’s about curating pieces that raise a [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Like everybody else, I am susceptible to clicking on those listicle articles. You know the ones. It’s an article that’s structured as a list: “Five Keys to Financial Independence” or “Ten Clues That Your Boss Is Ready to Hand You a Pink Slip.” They are the favored structural tool for organizing ideas [...]
Image by Geordie from Pixabay It’s always a challenge to write a seasonal blog. That’s because you do it every year, and everybody else is doing the same thing thematically, too. And most of y’all work in ministry, so you know what I mean, because you’re in the business of designing worship and [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Olga Fil from Pixabay I was checking out National Public Radio’s excellent resource, “Life Kit,” and the featured broadcast article was all about techniques for finding missing things. It focused on strategies for how to find personal items we’ve misplaced, but I was struck by how useful versions [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Keith Johnston from Pixabay I had a personal experience this week that I hope you can benefit from hearing about. I let myself be coached. This is probably momentous news only if you have known me for a long time. Traditionally, I am thoroughly, unfailingly, notoriously uncoachable. Don’t [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Keith Johnston from Pixabay In my sports watching of the past week, there were heartbreaking moments of excellent players failing in spectacular fashion. The Yankees leaped out to a five-run lead in game four of the World Series as they fought to stave off elimination, then collapsed in [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by kp yamu Jayanath from Pixabay I voted yesterday, October 31st. In some ways, it seemed an ironic commentary, the scariest thing I could think of to do on Halloween. It’s been a tumultuous election season, one in a series of turbulent seasons, and people are antsy. There is [...]
Image by Alberto Adán from Pixabay There I was, reading another home design article (one of my hobbies for killing time when I should be doing other things), and I had that moment when I say, “Golly, this is just like ministry!” The design feature in question: light in the kitchen. Houzz contributor [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Th G from Pixabay This is the last in my series based on my recent backpacking trip to Yosemite National Park and this week, it’s all about the gear. Things have changed a lot since the pioneering environmentalist John Muir first explored the fabled California valley in 1868 [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay Last week, I wrote about hiking in the stunning Yosemite Valley. I did this trip with a high school buddy, one of my oldest and dearest friends. We’ve been doing trips together on a semi-annual basis for 40 years. Scheduling adventure trips or biking [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Photo by Pipkin. I was blessed to do a week of backpacking in Yosemite National Park recently. Truly spectacular. If the word spectacular was invented to describe visually stunning scenery, it found its apotheosis in describing the Yosemite valley. It was a bucket list trip, and you get the treat [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by bunditz from Pixabay What to keep and what to get rid of? It’s a modern dilemma. We are so blessed, our homes so filled with stuffthatwe’re constantly having to think about what should stay and what should go. Or we’re scheming ways to keep asmuch as possible! But [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by David from Pixabay My wife and I took a little excursion over to SeaWorld to ride the new roller coaster, Penguin Trek. It’s always a thrill to ride a new ride for the first time, and beyond the experience of the coaster itself, part of the fun is [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay I had a good friend who was telling me about attending one of those “Sip & Paint” events. She does this on occasion, meet up with some pals for a glass of wine and a guided painting session. None of them are artists, not [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay One last thought on the just completed Olympic games. In all the hoopla over the superhuman performances of American gymnast Simone Biles, it’s important to remember that this wasn’t just any gold medal performance. This was an epic comeback story. Having dramatically withdrawn from [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by David from Pixabay It’s time for the XXXIII Olympiad, Paris 2024, and I hope you’ve blocked off your calendar to watch some of the 329 medal events that will feature athletes from around the world competing in traditional demonstrations of physical prowess – running, rowing, and pole vaulting, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Alexa from Pixabay I wrote last week about my recent trip to Costa Rica. It’s the rainy season in Central America, so we saw rain every day we were there. We were prepared; we had rain gear, so afternoon deluges didn’t slow us down. They don’t slow the [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Cornell Frühauf from Pixabay A couple of mornings ago, I took my coffee out to the back porch and balanced it on the little table beside my favorite chair for reading the newspaper as the sun comes up. I studied a few articles, took a sip, then, no [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Willfried Wende from Pixabay I had a great Father’s Day last weekend, and if you’re a dad (or a bonus dad), I hope you did, too. I received some fun gifts (a very cool jumbo National Parks themed rubber ducky) and some edible gifts (here’s looking at you, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by tookapic from Pixabay Last week’s blog episode referenced a podcast from Hidden Brain. This week you get a referral to the Freakonomics universe. An April podcast from the minds that explore weird connections in the world of economics focused on the impacts of unintended consequences. In the ministry [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Katja Riedel from Pixabay Ministry leadership groups love to brainstorm ideas. One of the most popular activities among those who are sketching out their vision for the coming year is to get a bunch of people together in a room with a big whiteboard or a bunch of [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Storme from Pixabay I have a great yard, a Central Florida acre that features some fruit trees, plenty of flowers, and assorted colorful tropical landscape plants. I tend this flora for the serenity of it. I'm a person who needs a regular serenity-inducer to counterbalance my natural impatience. [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Peter H from Pixabay I turned 61 a couple of weeks ago. I know, I know, dear readers, you thought from the tone of my exuberant observations and the recounting of my hyperkinetic adventures that surely I was a much younger man. Some days, I feel like my [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay One of the great strategies for helping people feel empowered is to consistently seek their authentic feedback and engage them in the process of developing programs, events, and initiatives. If they feel that something has been lacking, they can be pivotal in developing new [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Wow Phochiangrak from Pixabay I faced an imminent personal crisis last week. I was at Cracker Barrel with my mom for an early Mother’s Day breakfast, and the menu had been revised (again!). I love those CB buttermilk pancakes – just the plain ol’ pancakes, no blueberries or [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Evgeni Tcherkasski from Pixabay In a crazy moment last week, a baseball manager got kicked out of a game for something he didn’t even do. Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected by the home plate umpire for critical comments – except Boone argued – and video clearly confirmed [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Alexa from Pixabay As a long-suffering Orlando Magic basketball fan, it was worthy of celebration last week when our young, scrappy team made it to the NBA playoffs. They acquitted themselves well this season, finishing in the top five in the Eastern Conference and avoiding the dreaded post-season [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Pavlo from Pixabay Following last week’s “Staple Girl” blog, I continued to think a lot about the nature of ministry. I argued in that blog that our work has impact, even when it’s not obvious and even when it’s not saluted with fireworks. Even so – even as [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay I’m writing this blog during Holy Week, so there is a very good chance that many of you won’t even be reading it until the following week or even the week after, since you’ll be in that recovery space that marks the days following the [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Aritha from Pixabay Jonathan Haidt has a new book coming out at the end of the month called “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” His premise is clear. Young people are in trouble because of the devices that [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Alana Jordan from Pixabay The NFL Players Association does a highly detailed survey each year in which they have each member evaluate the working conditions at the various team facilities, as well as travel logistics, accommodations, food quality, support services, communications, childcare, really anything and everything that touches [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by SplitShire from Pixabay I was at a wedding with chosen family this past weekend in Atlanta, and what a joyous time it was. The venue was beautiful, as were the bride and her mom, our dear friend from way back. The food was delicious, the ceremony heartfelt. The [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by pixel1 from Pixabay I was making myself a quick snack-lunch the other day, a banana with peanut butter, when I thought, “You know, sometimes two great tastes really do go great together.” There are plenty of potent examples of that truism, including the commercial version of the chocolate [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Julien Tromeur from Pixabay I was at the Friday night NASCAR truck race at Daytona International Speedway last weekend – always an evening of high-speed thrills and great people watching – but one of my favorite parts of the evening was watching the amateur “hype man” in the [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay This year marked one of the rare occasions on which Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday aligned. The two “holidays” have antithetical purposes – one to celebrate the joys of romantic love and one to remind us that life is short and then we die. It’s [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by ambermb from Pixabay The pandemic interlude had a dramatic impact on ministry. Looking back on that era, we can see ways that things that felt like they were going to be monumental permanent shifts were really just temporary blips. We can see ways that what was inevitable was [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by BeccaH from Pixabay You may or may not have seen a recent article from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership identifying ministry trends for 2024. You will already be familiar with them in some form, since you are likely dealing with them in practical ways. The Lewis Center, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay Jim Harbaugh, coach of the national champion Michigan Wolverines football team, is famous for, among other things, motivating his players with an old family motto, “Who’s got it better than us?” It’s a phrase that works on multiple levels, and just as it helped [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by majolala from Pixabay Last week I wrote about the collision of different schedules and lifestyle logistics when people in the same household are visiting together over the holidays. I made the argument that, rather than tension and drama resulting from the intersection of those differences, a beautiful synthesis [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by 955169 from Pixabay During the holiday season, we travelled a lot, and we hosted a lot. That means that sometimes we had guests sharing our home (no less than four different sets of guests over a month), and sometimes we were hosted by different sets of friends in [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Bob Dmyt from Pixabay It’s that time of year when we are either eager to give gifts or compelled to give gifts or, most likely, experiencing both compulsion and obligation in the giving of gifts, depending on the recipient. There are people we have been excited about sharing [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by M W from Pixabay We’ve been sampling the wide range of local Christmas events that our metro area has to offer, from formal orchestral performances to school holiday concerts, and it’s been a blast so far. From fancy synchronized light presentations to neighborhood decorating contests, carefully curated Festivals [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by mcmurryjulie from Pixabay I was catching up on the sports news from the weekend – don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I loooove sports – and in reading about the Kansas City vs. Green Bay football game on Sunday night from the storied frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Keith Johnston from Pixabay My wife and I attended our last home football game of the year last week. It’s been a fun inaugural year in the Big 12 for my beloved UCF Knights. Lots of ups and downs, but we ended on happy note with a victory [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Alexa from Pixabay Do you ever get worked over a mistake someone else made – just to realize upon reflection that it’s your own darn fault? Apologies to the late, great Jimmy Buffett for paraphrasing his stolen “Margaritaville” lyric, but he captures the thought process so well: the [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay We like to keep things running smoothly. We like to keep things drama free. We like a day characterized by the smiley-faced emoji, not that dude with the grumpy frowny-face. We like a day when there are no hiccups, hangups, or complications. This is [...]
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Guy from Pixabay I got to attend my first Formula One race last weekend in Texas. Aside from all the fast cars and great music (it being Austin, after all), it’s impossible for an old ministry event organizer like me to go to any major shindig without analyzing [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay There are lots of things that local churches do well. There are plenty of things that local churches don’t do well at all (and while I was tempted to add there, “not for lack of trying,” the sad truth is that often [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Dee from Pixabay Even if you don’t watch pro football, and even if you don’t follow pop music, you may have been unable to avoid one of the stories that dominated national newsfeeds last week: Taylor Swift’s visit to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands to watch her new [...]
by Eddie Pipkin Image by Luisella Planeta LOVE PEACE 💛💙 from Pixabay I was assembling a new bike last week, and even though I am not a handy person, things were going pretty well. Then I got to the “attach front fender” stage, and my efforts ground to a screeching halt. I had [...]
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 to see what looked for all the world like a bright orange parking meter (!) but turned out to be [...]
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 surrounded by mountains, but that’s not the only thing that set it apart. Chance is himself a force of nature, [...]
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 a cheap plastic 8-inch golden column with a shiny star on top. It's gaudy; it's silly; it's a tool we [...]
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 the same shared space, I thoroughly anticipated a shout-out to churches as a place to be celebrated for their egalitarianism. [...]
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 much time watching games between now and Christmas. Of course, I’m not so big a football nerd as to watch [...]
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 before. We’ve owned this car for six years, and you’d think by now I would know the minutiae of its [...]
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 Builders project. Your ministry teams are hard-working squads of people with different gifts, talents, passions, knowledge, and experiences, and when [...]
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 her wearable fitness tracker. She loves her rants, AHP, as do we all! This one was about the ways in [...]
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 was one of those moments when I realized that, if nothing changed, we were on an intersecting trajectory. This sort [...]
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 the media phenomenon which is happening this weekend called the Barbenheimer. On the same day, two highly anticipated but thematically [...]
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 can't even remember where; surely in New Orleans when I was there for a weekend in December: "Lache pas a [...]
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 Rays, so always fun to watch). They started the year on a torrid pace, winning game after game, but as [...]
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 the revelation I had: Airports assume everyone is a visitor. All the signage and all the processes are geared towards [...]
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 difference, not only for yourself, but for the people around you. It’s one of the keys to knowing how to [...]
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 can benefit from some decluttering and reorganization, institutions like local churches can profit from these good habits as well. Of [...]
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 profusion of post-home-run celebrations involving physical props in Major League Baseball stadiums this year. For as long as I can [...]
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 honor our weekend diner tradition. We needed basic breakfast food fast and on our designated route. So, Waffle House to [...]
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 the outlandish observance I had planned, you will still have one final blog to remember me by. More self-aggrandizing details [...]
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 that glorious part of the world, you will know that not only is the natural landscape beautiful, but the local [...]
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 the planet’s surface by rocket engines, and it is designed to be fully reusable. The goal last Thursday morning was [...]
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 publications as a cool place to visit – and it is. It combines fun, whimsy, nature, food, art, architecture, community, [...]
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 to be a part of the IKEA family, app and all, for the sole purpose of gaining access to a [...]
By Eddie Pipkin Image by Marc Pascual from Pixabay I’ve noticed this thing lately. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pop culture reference, a personal lifestyle option, or a theological difference, it’s not enough for some people to state a preference; they feel a strong desire to express outright disdain for any choice [...]
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, with ESPN announcing after the first day of play for the opening round of 64 teams that all 24 million [...]
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 two of the developments that made the Twentieth Century as we lived it possible: the CFCs that made air conditioning [...]
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 have become more of a trend in the past couple of years: the unexpected awkward-side overtaker. Imagine yourself on a [...]
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 (although, honestly, do they ever quite go out of style); and it’s apparently true for phone calls. Person-to-person audio as [...]
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 ourselves: overwhelmed by grief by obligated to work out the complex logistics of funeral arrangements. My mother-in-law, God bless her, [...]
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 it was going to be a playful challenge to parents (because we all know that as parents we’re supposed to [...]
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 the principal reasons so many structures collapsed was that earthquake safety building codes had been willfully subverted. Countless thousands 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 on board for our sailing, which meant that the crew was also small. A core group of crew members rotated [...]
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 away to the enormous grandstands that front the iconic 2.5-mile track, I was astonished to see how many people were [...]
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 off that habit for 2023, they should be slipping right about now. (Such a vow would be undertaken only by [...]
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 that maybe I did and maybe I didn't (I did in this case, but somewhere in this week’s blog will [...]
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, you might say … unresolved! (We shall take a brief pause while you wipe up the coffee you just spewed [...]
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. And I’m not just going to produce a generic ministry resolutions list for next year – oh, no – I’m [...]
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 [...]
By Phil Maynard September 26,2016 Every church I meet with expresses in some way a desire to reach new people and engage them in becoming growing disciples of Jesus Christ. It is also true, however, that almost every church I meet with is in decline, resulting in fewer people participating in worship, less of a [...]
By Eddie Pipkin December 21, 2015 Much has been written about the younger generation’s disaffection for the church. They report being disconnected from a tired message, stale programs, and language that isn’t relative to their daily experience. They are unengaged and unenthusiastic, bored with the way we do worship. They can’t relate, and they are [...]
December 11, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Here we are – all of us in the business of ministry – hurtling non-stop through the busy season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, liturgically referenced as Advent, but colloquially known as Survival Mode. Every ministry has dozens of extra events: special worship, seasonal outreach and mission projects, children and [...]
November 18, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Don’t you love going to Ikea? They have it all. You tour the showroom, plop on the furniture, hold things in your hands, see a completed vision for what a room is supposed to look like, then follow the maps to pick up everything you need and take it [...]
November 12, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin I have a friend named Shari who hates to throw things out. She is environmentally attuned, composts and conserves, recycles and repurposes. The folks at her church wait to throw things into the dumpster until she’s out of town. That’s because she has been known to climb into the [...]
November 6, 2015 By Phil Maynard As we approach the release of my new Membership to Discipleship book in late November, I want to continue to give you some insights into how this book came to be. It has been an organic outgrowth of decades of ministry work. For years, both as a pastor of [...]
November 2, 2015 By Phil Maynard I am very excited to share that on November 20th, we are officially launching a new book, called Membership to Discipleship. This book is the product of many years of work with the leaders of individual congregations across the United States—it is, in a very real sense, the culmination [...]
October 27, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin In an expansive essay in a recent New York Times Sunday Review, “Stop Googling and Let’s Talk,” (a preview of her new book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age), professor and author Sherry Turkle shares her research and conclusions in the field of online connectivity [...]
October 14, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks to play the game of football. In his 17-year career, he has thrown for more than 70,000 yards, and just a few weeks ago became the record holder for most NFL touchdown throws (at 538 and counting). He is most widely [...]
October 6, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Click Here to Read Full VentureBeat Article Elon Musk is considered by many to be a genius. He founded PayPal, SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla. He works tirelessly to harness technology to build money making businesses AND promote a more environmental (and adventure-filled) planet. Heck, he has been acknowledged as [...]
October 1, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Destin Sandlin is an aerospace engineer (that is, he is a real rocket scientist who works at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama). He is also a YouTube educator, who makes entertaining videos about scientific insights, which he posts on a channel called, Smarter Every Day. Recently, a friend sent [...]
September 22, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin I was a big fan of the AMC series Mad Men, which focused on the characters in a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 1960’s. One of the most discussed and beloved aspects of the show was the way it captured the vibe of that era–how it looked and [...]
June 21, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin You’ve probably never heard of Alex Kipman. He’s the engineer behind one of the ‘wow’ developments in tech devices right now, a gizmo that Microsoft is developing called the HoloLens. According to Time Magazine, the HoloLens is a virtual reality headset that “effectively projects 3-D holograms directly in front [...]
June 17, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin On April 6th, Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devil’s won the 2015 NCAA basketball championship, the culmination of March Madness. Coach K, as he is known by all, is the winningest coach in college basketball history. In the course of his 40 year coaching career, he has won [...]
June 12, 2015 By Phil Maynard Like the title says, be creative. Nobody who would actually take the time to read a “Powerful Worship Experiences” blog would disagree with that advice. That is to say, nobody who has a hand in leading worship would advocate the alternative strategy: don’t be creative. Everybody wants to honor [...]
May 26, 2015 By Phil Maynard Once you have committed to the design philosophy of creating a thematic worship series, the challenge, as espoused in books like The Big Idea, is to tailor all elements of a particular worship service to reinforce the theme for the day. It is possible, and indeed invigorating, to get [...]
May 19, 2015 By Phil Maynard One of the most powerful aspects of worship design is visual. If you are working within the framework of thematic worship design, this is an excellent way to anchor the theme and give worshipers a strong sensory connection that is constantly present no matter what else is happening during [...]
March 24, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin “Silent Disco” – The Importance of Clarity of Vision Eddie Pipkin I was on a three-day cruise to the Bahamas recently, helping a good friend celebrate his graduation from seminary, and I got the biggest kick out of this onboard activity called The Silent Disco. The first night of [...]
March 17, 2015 By Phil Maynard Creating Powerful Worship Experiences (Part 3 of an 8-part blog series) Clarifying the Destination It is difficult to know if we have successfully arrived at our destination without first having a clear concept of where it is we are headed. And likewise, it’s difficult to get everybody else to [...]
February 6, 2015 By Phil Maynard (Part 2 of an 8-part blog series) If you have identified a team of people passionate about worship at your church, and if you truly want to empower them to produce worship experiences that connect experientially with your congregation, the single greatest gift you can give this team is [...]
January 30, 2015 By Phil Maynard Part 1 -- Building a Team -- (an 8-part blog series) The classic view (perhaps romantic, somehow spiritually heroic) is of a lone pastor, tucked away in a study by candlelight, weighty bound commentaries stacked around him as he toils late at night awaiting inspiration by the Holy Spirit, who swoops [...]
January 23, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Every year, the week before Advent begins, I drive to the church storage unit with the Director of Children’s Ministry for the local congregation that she and I serve, and we load my ragged old Honda Odyssey right up to the roof with all of the Christmas decorations. Then [...]
December 30, 2014 By Phil Maynard Encouragement to Take Personal Responsibility for Spiritual Growth (Part 5 of Top 5 Things People Need from the Church to Grow as Disciples) As people move toward maturity they should become less dependent on the local church to provide for their spiritual growth. They should begin to take responsibility [...]
December 23, 2014 By Phil Maynard The Challenge to Grow and Take Next Steps (Part 4 in the Top 5 Things People Need From the Church to Grow as Disciples) This may come as a surprise for some, but the Willow Creek survey indicates that a large percentage of those beginning and starting to grow [...]
December 16, 2014 By Phil Maynard Leaders Who Model and Reinforce Spiritual Practices (Part 3 of Top 5 Things People Need From a Church to Grow as Disciples) It is often said that where the leaders go, the people will follow. I think this is especially true in the Church. I worked with an Administrative [...]
December 9, 2014 By Phil Maynard 2 - Help developing a personal relationship with Jesus Developing a personal relationship with Jesus doesn’t happen by accident. It isn’t transferred by osmosis. We don’t ‘catch’ it by sitting next to another Christian in the pew on Sunday morning. In unpacking the tools of how to aspire toward [...]
December 2, 2014 By Phil Maynard Series…Top 5 Things People Need from the Church to Grow as Disciples 1 – Help Understanding the Bible Research by Willow Creek (as reported in the book Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth) identifies ‘help in understanding the Bible’ as a need reported by around 75% of [...]
November 25, 2014 By Phil Maynard Chvches (pronounced “churches”) isn’t a religious group at all. They’re a Scottish ‘electronic’ band that is currently touring the U.S. behind its 2013 album release, The Bones of What You Believe. In an interview this past summer with Chicago Tribune writer Luis Gomez, the band mates related what they [...]
November 4, 2014 By Eddie Pipkin You’d have to be a hermit in the deepest cave in the most remote mountain range not to have heard a kid belting out the Disney movie Frozen’s signature song: “Let It Go.” The characters and the song are cute enough, but the enormous popularity of the tune (just [...]
October 28, 2014 By Eddie Pipkin Too hard, too soft, and just right. Have you heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Churches? Goldilocks visited three churches on three consecutive Sundays, and while she enjoyed the worship at each one, she was particularly interested in how they would follow up with a visitor like [...]
September 9, 2014 By Phil Maynard Chip and Dan Heath, in this very excellent book about leading change, provide amazing insights into how to connect with both our rational and emotional processes to accomplish change. In the first part of the book, the authors introduce the psychology of change using an analogy developed by [...]
August 7, 2014 By Phil Maynard If you want to see real results and relationships, become a coach to others and take them on the journey from where they are to where they want to go! Coaching people through their faith journey will impact your life and the lives of those you coach… -Phyllis Hendry, [...]
July 21, 2014 By Phil Maynard Thomas G. Bandy is an internationally recognized church consultant and leadership coach. The author of many books over the years, this may be my favorite due to the very practical nature of this resource. Bandy has been a leader in the development of helpful resources for understanding demographic research [...]
July 14, 2014 By Phil Maynard I’ve rarely met a church where there wasn’t a desire to introduce more people to Jesus. Yet, the number one issue as I work with churches (new church plants and existing congregations) is how to reach more people for Jesus. Basically there are three options. First, is what [...]
June 23, 2014 By Phil Maynard Thomas G. Bandy is an internationally recognized church consultant and leadership coach. The author of many books over the years, this may be my favorite due to the very practical nature of this resource. Bandy has been a leader in the development of helpful resources for understanding demographic research [...]
June 10, 2014 By Phil Maynard My first career was in Radiologic Sciences (X-ray technology). One of the basic principles in calculating x-ray intensities (or lighting in photography) is called the inverse square law: When you double the distance, the intensity of the x-ray beam becomes one-fourth of the original intensity. I have found [...]
May 30, 2014 By Phil Maynard I recently had a coaching conversation with a church leadership team that has made a serious commitment to extending radical hospitality. Their planning has finally paid off in that just a few weeks ago a hospitality team launched their first ever ‘hospitality center’ where coffee and refreshments were available [...]
March 12, 2014 By Phil Maynard The Psalmist talks about God’s Word as a lamp for our feet and a light upon our path (Psalm 119:105). It’s a great image for making the way clear! Our leaders need partners to help make the way clear as they seek to fulfill their responsibilities. Its time the [...]
March 5, 2014 By Phil Maynard Leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There are several factors that will help determine whether the leaders you select will be successful. This means that there are several things churches and pastors can do to create an environment that empowers leaders. Let me make some suggestions: Responsibility: leaders need [...]
February 26, 2014 By Phil Maynard Selecting Leaders for Ministry It is often said that the key to leadership is getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats on the bus. I think there is much truth to this. But how do you know if you are getting the right people [...]
February 19, 2014 By Phil Maynard Jesus once warned about building a house on a poor foundation. Nowhere is this issue more obvious than when we have leaders in place without the foundations to sustain them through the shifting sands of ministry leadership. It is frequently the case in selecting congregational leaders that we [...]
January 15, 2014 By Phil Maynard Almost every where I go pastors indicate that one of the top two needs in the congregation is more and better leaders. Over the next few weeks I will be looking at some key components for developing a system for multiplying congregational leaders. The storyboard below gives an overview [...]
December 26, 2013 By Phil Maynard Did you know that as many as 90% of people looking for a place to worship will visit the website of a church before making a decision to attend? The website of the church is today’s equivalent of an advertisement in the yellow pages a decade or two [...]
December 19, 2013 By Phil Maynard Consider the following. …It’s a familiar story lived out in many congregations across the United States. Someone is in crisis, a couple has their first child, or a family moves to the area. They decide to attend the church down the street. They don’t know anyone, so they arrive [...]
December 13, 2013 By Phil Maynard Don’t miss the opportunity of the Christmas Season. This is one of three or four times a year (seasonally) when people are most open to an invitation to church. It’s no secret. Most churches (somewhere around 80%) are plateaued or in decline when it comes to participation in worship. [...]
November 29, 2013 By Phil Maynard As Christ poured himself out for us, so we who follow him must pour ourselves out for others -- by being liberated to live on less . . . in order to bless others more. How does the church cultivate extravagant generosity? I’m borrowing from Andy Stanley, pastor of [...]
November 22, 2013 By Phil Maynard We continue thinking about extravagant generosity by looking at our culture from the vantage point of what Jesus hoped would be our relationship to money and things. Our culture, infected as it is by the disease of “affluenza,” might be characterized in three ways. Materialism: it is all about [...]
November 12, 2013 By Phil Maynard I know of few pastors who look forward to talking about money . . . and few lay persons who enjoy listening! Oddly, Jesus talked more about our relationship to money and things than faith, prayer or forgiveness. In fact, he spoke more about it than anything but the [...]
November 5, 2013 By Phil Maynard “We are a small church with a traditional worship service, not a passionate worship service,” said a pastor apologetically. The pastor seemed to assume that a traditional worship service couldn’t possibly be a passionate worship service. And that a small membership congregation couldn’t worship passionately. I don’t think either [...]
October 31, 2013 By Phil Maynard Weary Clergy and Idle Laity: What's Wrong With This Picture? One of the impressions I get is that many pastors are weary. They have been at this ministry thing 60 hours or more a week for some years and they are just tired. And no matter how hard they [...]
September 29, 2013 By Phil Maynard Have you ever tried to teach a child to tie their shoes? It’s something most of us do so naturally and automatically that breaking down the process into teachable steps is a challenge. According to a number of pastors I’ve spoken to recently, teaching people to extend Christ’s radical hospitality [...]
September 23, 2013 By Phil Maynard There seems recently to be an epidemic of people feeling that there is not enough. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not enough talent. Not enough power. Not enough creativity. Not enough me. Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Yet, often we focus [...]
September 16, 2013 By Phil Maynard You would think that church people would be good at funerals, but we aren’t. It seems instead that when it comes to programs and special events it’s, “Once done, always done,” or, as a staff member once quipped, “The show must go on!” But why? Why must the first [...]
September 9, 2013 By Phil Maynard He is a friendly sort and a fine neighbor, but he loves yard care by chemicals. When we first moved in he had quite a nice yard – recently sodded, I believe. Then some weeds began popping up here and there. He would go out and spray the weeds [...]
August 20, 2013 A guest post by Jeff Stiggins A missionally vital congregation is a fruitful congregation. Jesus in John 15 makes it clear that fruitfulness is expected. Unfruitful branches are cut off. Fruitful branches are pruned so that they will bear more fruit. Obviously, fruitfulness is important to Jesus. So, what does it mean to be a fruitful congregation? [...]
August 13, 2013 A guest post by Jeff Stiggins A vital congregation makes present and impactful the incarnational ministry of Jesus in a particular place. Vital congregations are homegrown. They are rooted in and reflect the culture and people in their communities. Therefore, there are no vanilla, one-size-fits-all vital congregations. Everyone is tailor-made for their particular location. What blooms like [...]
August 6, 2013 Guest post by Jeff Stiggins It isn’t my church or your church or even our church. The church belongs to Jesus. It’s easy to forget that the church is a franchise. We don’t get to decide what the church is about. The mission is set. Still we vote on what we want as if our preferences [...]
July 31, 2013 Guest post by Jeff Stiggins There is lots of talk these days in United Methodist circles about increasing the number of vital congregations. Okay, what’s a “vital congregation?” If one ran through the room right now, how would you recognize it? In this blog series, I’d like to offer a definition of a “vital congregation.” The [...]
May 5, 2013 By Phil Maynard “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew [...]
April 28, 2013 By Phil Maynard “We are not meant to remain as children…but we are meant to speak the truth in love, and to grow up in every way in Christ, the head.” (Ephesians 4:14, JB Phillips) There is a deep-seated expectation in the contemporary church that it is the responsibility of the church, [...]
April 21, 2013 By Phil Maynard I come from a Wesleyan tradition so I confess that personal accountability is wired into my being. Having said that, it is also clear across denominational lines and theological perspectives that movement toward maturity in the Christian journey requires a level of accountability. The genius of Wesley’s discipling process [...]
April 11, 2013 By Phil Maynard 5 Ways to Get People into the Word (the most critical element of spiritual growth) Reflection on scripture is the vanilla ice cream of spiritual growth. It is the stuff that all the other spiritual growth catalysts are built upon. Engaging scripture personally and regularly is critical for spiritual [...]
February 20, 2013 By Phil Maynard Some version of the statement “you can’t keep doing things the same way you have been and expect to get different results” (notice how tactful I was here!) seems to be worth pondering by churches Ffrom a wide variety of denominational tribes. We all know it just doesn’t work. [...]
February 20, 2013 By Phil Maynard Chip and Dan Heath, in this very excellent book about leading change, provide amazing insights into how to connect with both our rational and emotional processes to accomplish change. In the first part of the book, the authors introduce the psychology of change using an analogy developed by psychologist [...]
February 20, 2013 By Phil Maynard I think one of the most common misunderstandings about leadership in the church is that the primary job of the leader is to lead (defined as be in charge, make all the decisions, tell people what to do, think up every new ministry focus etc.) This is not what [...]
January 31, 2013 By Phil Maynard Discovering the Possibilities (MAPS – Ministry Action Potential Study) A study of missional opportunities for the local church The Discovering the Possibilities is a facilitated process designed to assist congregational leaders understanding the realities of their ministry context and current ministries, and to begin discerning possibilities for their future [...]
January 23, 2013 By Phil Maynard Doug Anderson, author and speaker from the Reuben Job Center, shared in a workshop the following: “The test of a congregation’s discipling process is whether their core leaders are preference driven or mission focused” The difference between these two ideas is huge… Preference Driven is about getting our way [...]
January 22, 2013 By Phil Maynard It is rare that I work with a church that says it has more than enough leaders to support its ministries and that its leaders are equipped to what is expected of them (and by rare I mean never!). When I talk with pastors and leaders from congregations [...]
December 14, 2012 By Phil Maynard It all started in a discussion during a SHIFTS network meeting with the pastors and key lay persons from five congregations talking about the difference between missional gestures and ministries of engagement related to serving others. One of the pastors was convicted that his congregation had focused on missional [...]
December 4, 2012 By Phil Maynard Reggie McNeal, currently serving as the Missional Leadership Specialist for the Leadership Network, identifies in this classic work three major shifts that must take place in the Church if it is to live into its God-given potential in the next century. This book is a must-read for all church [...]
November 29, 2012 By Phil Maynard Although I have been a life-long United Methodist, one of my most formative experiences in the faith journey was the introduction to accountable discipleship. Drawing on the rich heritage of the Wesleyan Class meetings, the accountable discipleship helped me understand that being a disciple of Jesus Christ was [...]
November 8, 2012 By Phil Maynard It would seem to be a ‘no-brainer’. If we’re going to connect with our community, engage our community, and make a difference in our community we have to ‘know’ our community. I am discovering however that ‘knowing’ the community is not always the case for congregations. A while back, [...]
August 27, 2012 By Phil Maynard I was sitting in my preferred seat (the nosebleed section) of the annual denominational meeting of my tribe with a lot of other bored people. Then it happened. The smell of fresh popcorn wafted across the aisle. The little girl enjoying her snack had no idea the impact she [...]
August 27, 2012 By Phil Maynard Chapter 1: A Biblical Mandate for Fruitfulness The authors remind us that the Bible begins and ends with images of fruitfulness and conclude that the church is also intended to be fruitful. They identify three types of fruitfulness that God hopes we will display: The Fruit of God’s expanding [...]
August 1, 2012 By Phil Maynard For some reason ministry leaders seem to think they have to figure it all out on their own. Maybe it’s the title that does it, maybe its our culture we were brought up in, or maybe its just about our egos. But its time that the church figured out [...]
July 24, 2012 By Phil Maynard Right Here Right Now is structured with three major sections: Putting our Hearts into it (missional paradigm) Wrapping our Heads around it (missional analysis) Doing something about it (missional action) Alan Hirsch provide a briefing giving some foundations for a missional framework and a debriefing summarizing what he considers [...]
July 17, 2012 By Phil Maynard I was coaching a pastor several weeks ago who shared that he was looking for a way to get a new family at the church more connected. Joe, the father in the family, was a well-known businessman in the community. The pastor said: “I’m thinking about asking him to [...]
