Thrive In 5: Spiritual – Protecting the Spiritual Life of the Pastor
Take 5 minutes to read and think about how God might be speaking to you right now.
Thriving Clergy
Thrive In 5: Emotional Cultivating an Emotional Core
Pastoral ministry requires the ability to withstand the emotional stresses of life and be “present” and empathetic to others.
Thrive In 5: Spiritual – Friendship
Friendship with God
Thrive in 5: Physical
Living a healthy lifestyle requires physical activity.
Thrive In 5: Intellectual
The Emotionally Healthy Leader As a pastor, you know that leadership is much more than knowing solid management techniques or creating and casting vision. First and foremost, you lead out of who you are. Who you are will manifest itself in how you lead others. The...
Thrive In 5: Emotional
If you have read A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, are you an Eeyore or a Tigger? “Eeyores” are your typical pessimists. Life is one disappointment after another. Positive things are never as good as imagined. Neutral things are worse than expected. Negative things...
Thrive in 5: Physical
Living a healthy lifestyle requires physical activity.
Thrive In 5: Spiritual
Delighting in the Trinity- What is your Christian life like?
Thrive In 5: Relational
What is a secret to strong relationships? In his book “The Relationship Cure,” relational researcher, John Gottman, suggests that we should be on the lookout for “bids for connection” and turn toward these bids whenever we can. What is a bid for connection? A...
Thriving in ministry: the best young pastors
Stepping out of college and into the world of ministry can be a daunting prospect. After graduation, young ministers often feel unsure of how to use their education and apply it in the “real world.”
Thrive In 5: Emotional – Anxiety
Here are five things you can do to turn off your God-given anxiety alarm bells when they are over active.
Thrive in 5: Financial
The Importance of Saving Money Saving money is an important part of your personal financial journey. In John Wesley’s message on money, his three main points were earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can. Unfortunately, many people are not saving these...
Thrive in 5: Physical
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God has created human...
Thrive in 5: Relational Attunement
Neuroscientists affirm that we are “wired for connection” from birth. Infant brains develop best when caretakers are in sync—attuned—with babies’ physical, emotional, and relational needs. Obviously, no caretaker is in sync 100 percent of the time; caregivers provide...
Thrive in 5: Use Your Brain the Way God Intended
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” –Galileo Maintaining intellectual health is often a neglected part of pastoral well-being. Yet, Jesus included loving...
Thrive In 5: Emotional
How do you feel about the person you are with when you are all alone? This is when your capacity for self-loathing or self-liking reveals itself. The odds are good that you may experience either attitude about your “self” at one time or another. As a pastor,...
Thrive In 5: Planning For Retirement
One of the hardest things for some pastors to think about is preparing for retirement. There are so many aspects to think about, it can boggle the mind. Yet, it is one of the most important life events many of us will ever experience from both a personal and...
Thrive In 5: Understanding God’s Love
As Wesleyan pastors, we all know the scriptural truth that loving God and loving others is the central hallmark of the Christian spiritual life. But do we truly embrace this as the ultimate outcome of what it means to be Spirit-filled? As David Benner states,...
A Warm Welcome at New Pastor Orientation
This year’s Education and Clergy Development’s New Pastor Orientation welcomed 15 new pastors and their spouses to the Wesleyan community, with times of sharing, networking and advice. On October 11-12, new pastors, their spouses and seasoned Wesleyans met at...
Thrive in 5 – Intellectual- Informing Your Understanding of Culture
Pastors assist people to be faithful disciples of Jesus in the midst of a culture that is in need of redemption. But how can you as a pastor be best informed about the nature of that culture?
Sanctifying Context
Higher education is facing significant challenges but these challenges have prompted reflection on the purpose of Christian higher education in particular.
Polarized: 3 Ways to Preach Unity in a Divided Political Climate
By Ethan Linder | May 18, 2017 What does the church do after a divisive election year? Though we’ve faced this question before, its implications seem particularly important in the wake of this political season. Churches are grappling with how to reconcile...
Sabbaticals: Learning to Thrive
By Jessica White | Oct 14, 2016 The word “sabbaticals” is sometimes accompanied by a negative connotation. When ministers consider a sabbatical they think: “There is never a good time to get away. If I leave now, the church will fall apart.”...
Lilly Endowment Makes Grants to Address Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders Nationwide
The Wesleyan Church has received a grant of $1,000,000 as part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s National Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders. The initiative supports a variety of religious organizations across the nation as they address...