“We need more worship wars, not fewer. What if the war looked like this in your congregation—the young singles petitioning the church to play more of the old classics for the sake of the elderly people, and the elderly people calling on the leadership to contemporize for the sake of the young new believers? This would signal a counting of others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3), which comes from the Spirit of the humiliated, exalted King, Christ (Philippians 2:5-11). When I insist that the rest of the congregation serve as backup singers in my own little nostalgic hit parade of back-home Mississippi hymns, I am worshiping in the…

How sweet that Fred was with us via Skype when the world’s best UPS driver dropped off our package from Baker Books: Fun stuff! We are blessed.   (And we’ll be doing a giveaway or two as soon as Redeeming Church Conflicts is available for purchase, so be sure to check back.)  

Dave is holding Redeeming Church Conflicts in his hot little hands, so assuming the Pony Express made a right turn in Colorado and kept riding all night, I hope to have a copy sometime today. I’ll be sure to put up a picture and let you know if/when it arrives. (And once we get our extra copies, be sure to check back for some giveaways too!) To hold you in the interim, I encourage you to read Dave’s blog for today. It’s a keeper and spot-on, especially if you’re tempted to despair over a dead relationship in your life: Easter Sunday: Never Again Need There be a Conflict Beyond the…

Just in case you’d like to learn some details about my next book (coauthored with Dave Edling), Dave has a killer post up at our  RedeemingChurchConflicts website: The Acts 15 Model for Redeeming Church Conflict as a Model of Progressive Continuity Consistent with All of Scriptur  

Dave’s post today is definitely worth the read: How to Fire Your Pastor (Part 3 of 3) I particularly appreciated this excerpt:   “Wise and mature pastors, leaders, and members will recognize that this pastoral change is part of God’s plan for producing holiness in His eternal children. They will respond with light—truth, healing, beauty, compassion, and care—because their life goal is to reflect all of the characteristics of their Lord and King, Jesus Christ. But others? Sadly, they will respond with darkness—lies, distortions, relational injury, ugliness, judgment, and betrayal—because even though they claim to live for Jesus and His glory, they are ultimately motivated by their own selfish desires.…

When it comes to the topic of firing your pastor, Dave has decided there is just too much to cover in two posts. So in addition to last week’s post (our most popular post  to date—I wonder what that indicates about this particular topic?), Dave will write two more. Here is yesterday’s. It is definitely worth the read: How to Fire Your Pastor (Part 2 of 3)  

Dave continues to write great posts over at RedeemingChurchConflicts.com. Yesterday’s post was our most read to date: How to  Fire Your Pastor (Part 1 of 2) My only complaint? He’s making us all wait another entire week to read Part 2 (!).  

I received this question from a blog reader and thought it might be of interest to some of my other readers, so with all identifying information removed or changed, here it is: “Dear Tara, Somewhere on your blog a while back, I read something about you working with the Session to help them help women. So, I thought you’d be a good person to ask … Our women’s council would like to volunteer to work with the Session any time a woman is called before the Session. Our goal would be what I (coming from a legal/court advocacy background) consider advocacy. Some of the ladies are afraid that might sound…

Dave keeps knocking ’em out of the park! Want to be encouraged? Enjoy this: When Change Seems Unlikely in Church Conflicts    

I was thrilled yesterday when two encouraging things happened re: my new book, “Redeeming Church Conflicts”. First, our ranking on Amazon jumped from 4.7 millionth to #165,241st. All in one day! I guess someone must have pre-ordered one copy. Very encouraging! Second, we received the final galleys from Baker Book House Co: Dave is happily working through a final reading and compiling our Scripture Index too. Then I’ll take my swing at it and we’ll be ready to publish. (BTW—If you’re interested in reading a fun article on proofing manuscripts, I heartily recommend, The Price of Typos. It’s a great little read; really revealed my propensities re: spelling and word…