Wise Voices

This collection of thoughts and essays comes from people who specialize in congregations. They are leaders with know-how—through first-hand knowledge, academic study, or practical experience. Our goal is to share their wisdom as well as provide real world applications of that wisdom. If you are or know of a Wise Voice we should include, please contact us at info@crg.org.

Focus on Jesus: The Center of the Target
An Interview with The Reverend Robert Bacon on Youth Ministry
Helping youth discover Jesus as the stablizing and life-giving force of their lives lies at the heart of Rob Bacon's vision of youth ministry. Since most clergy don't have the time necessary to make youth ministry thrive, Rob offers a model based on adult mentors who covenant together to serve youth. Their own spiritual growth is a by-product of their ministry.

A Disturbing Approach to Social Justice Ministry:
Challenging What’s Comfortable
An Interview with The Reverend Doctor Douglass M. Bailey
Urging the church to balance pastoral ministry with prophetic ministry, Doug Bailey invokes the 16th century prayer by Sir Francis Drake to "disturb us" from our comfort zone into bold ministry. This call comes as the church has lost its prophetic voice—in deference to consumer-based, inward-looking ministries.

Building Intentional Community in Youth Ministry
An Interview with Paul Bowen
Paul Bowen is a strong advocate for creating intentional communities in youth ministry and education. He senses that youth share the same spiritual cravings that adults do. He believes that many of the experiences that support adult faith—community, worship, and formation programs—can help young people find God's love, grace, and hope.

Moving from Fund-raising to Stewardship
An Interview with Deborah Winston Callard
Talking about money in the congregational setting is often difficult, yet wrestling with this reluctance is at the heart of effective stewardship ministry. Deborah Winston Callard describes stewardship as a way of life, and fund-raising as a method. She presents an overview of stewardship along with specific suggestions for conducting annual fund-raising, capital campaigns, and planned giving programs.

The Dinah Project: Churches Offering Hope to Sexual Violence Victims
An Interview with The Reverend Monica A. Coleman
Congregations are faced with how best to help prevent sexual violence, and how best to care for the victims, their abusers, and those related to the trauma. Monica Coleman has worked to empower churches to stand with and advocate for victims while addressing the pastoral needs of abusers and affected faith communities.

Social Justice and Common Ground:
An Interview with The Reverend June Cooper
Tap into the infectious enthusiasm that June Cooper has for building partnerships between the urban and suburban churches, and, while doing so, providing ways for people to be open to the Holy Spirt. June emphasizes the importance of prophetic voices on behalf of the poor and outcast.

Interfaith Community Organizing: Together We Can Move Mountains
An Interview with Frances B. Early
Putting her personal passion to work, Fran Early is a community organizer for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Working with faith communities for social justice strengthens communities, builds relationships, and changes lives. Here Fran describes the motivation for her work, the work itself, and considerations for those congregations interested in broad-based community organizing.

Telling the Gospel Through Fiction: The Lost Epistle of Jesus
An Interview with The Reverend Doctor Evan Drake Howard
Working at the intersection of Christian faith and culture, author and pastor Evan Howard advocates contemplative engagement as a path toward personal and social creativity. His emphasis is on using fiction and film to promote spiritual growth, religious education, and congregational renewal. His latest work, the novel The Lost Epistle of Jesus and its related study guide, help people understand the gospel through a contemporary lens.

Becoming a Holy and Healing Church
A Workshop with Graham Standish
Readers of Practicing Our Faith or Christianity for the Rest of Us are aware of churches that have been renewed through the ancient practice of healing prayer. Based on Graham Standish's workshop, "Becoming a Holy and Healing Church," this report from the CRG staff suggests ways to introduce a healing ministry in your church. Also featured is a collection of annotated resources.

"So That..."—Leadership, Accountability, and The Future Church
An Interview with The Reverend Doctor Lovett Weems
Lovett Weems, Executive Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, encourages new thinking on church leadership, and in particular, how best to support young clergy and the church they will inherit. New church leaders will find counsel in his thoughts. Established church leaders will find them a refreshing and hopeful reminder of what ministry is really all about.

Weaving the Web with Conversation: A New Model for Effective Leadership
An Interview with Margaret Wheatley
Drawing from her extensive experience working with living systems, Margaret Wheatley encourages congregational leaders to move away from hierarchical church models based on control and careful planning. Instead, she opts for models that rely on the quality of human relationships. Act and then adapt, or in Meg's words, "Just get started, and then learn from that experience."