This is my second rant this month. A few weeks ago I blogged about ordination and education. Today, I’d like to talk about women in ministry. Currently, our Denomination ordains only men as elders. We tend to use the term elder and pastor interchangeably. We also “commission” men and women into specific areas of leadership…
Category: Pacific Conference
36 Great Quotes from the Leadership Summit – 2018
This past week the Pacific Conference hosted the Global Leadership Summit via online streaming. We had a great time of learning and fellowship together. It may have been best roster of speakers ever! You can check out a highlight video (scroll down) on our website. Here are some great quotes from the event.
A Rant About Education, Ordination, and Ministry
I read that the average cost of a wedding in 2016 was over $35,000 dollars.[1] I would be all for spending that kind of money if there was a guarantee that the more you paid for a wedding, the better the marriage, but that just isn’t true. If there’s no correlation between wedding-spending and marriage-success,…
Four Reasons to Attend the Global Leadership Summit
You don’t want to miss this year’s “Global Leadership Summit.” Mark the dates… August 9th and 10th. A church in your region may be hosting it, but we are also streaming it at the Conference Office in Portland. I would love to have you join me for this summit. At the end of this blog,…
What I Heard at General Convention!
Happy 4th of July! I hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family! These past few days we have been part of our General Conference in Portland, Oregon. This is a meeting that takes place every four years and gathers our leaders from all of our Conferences across the nation. We do a…
Gathering Together
Next weekend we gather together for our General Conference in Portland (June 30-July 2). We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary as a Denomination. Wow! We are a relatively young group of churches with a strong historical past. Did you know that our roots go back to the first denomination founded in America? So why…
The Small Church & Millennials
Years ago, most people would wake up on Sunday mornings and get ready for church. Not so in the post-Christian community of today. That doesn’t mean everyone isn’t a believer, but that the culture as a whole has forgotten and abandoned their Christian roots and values. Today people don’t even think of church. Our church…
What Matters Most
This year, the theme of our Pacific Conference is “What Matters Most.” Too often we become distracted by so many good things that we can neglect the most important things. Recently I worked together with some other pastors to come up with a short list of WHAT MATTERS MOST for us as a conference of…
Next Year in Jerusalem!
Today a group of twenty-four, led by two of our School of Ministry professors, will depart PDX, destination Israel. They’ll spend just shy of two weeks in the Holy Land where they will join the faithful at the Eastern Wall, walk with the sorrowing on the Via Dolorosa, and celebrate at the Garden Tomb. They’ll…
Living with Resilient Passion
We are in the midst of our Annual Conference meetings. One of the highlights was Monday night’s session with Chaplain Milo Curtis. Milo is one of our pastors on special assignment. He serves as an Active Duty Chaplain in the United States Navy. What he shared was so refreshing! Let’s Talk We find how to live…
Anticipating Our Annual Conference in 3 Words
This coming week is our Annual Conference, November 13-15. About 150 pastors and leaders will gather at Valley View to share and learn together. The theme this year is “Beyond Ourselves.” We are praying that it will be a great 2 and a half days! LET’S TALK… So here are three words that summarize what…
Taking Time Off
How’s your summer? Have you taken time off? Over the years of ministry, I have been serious about taking time off. Somewhere I got this advice and tried to heed it (still do!): Divert daily (take those mini breaks); Withdraw weekly (have a consistent day off); and Abandon annually (use all your vacation time). This…
Coffee with Randall 