Jan and Carol…

I recently posted on my twitter feed about this, but for my money, two of the best bloggers writing about the intersection of faith, culture, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and authentic living are Carol Howard Merritt at Tribal Church and Jan Edmiston at A Church for Starving Artists. I’ve mentioned the latter here before, and both continue to be pushing important issues forward through their reflections on their respective blogs. I’m constantly finding their posts thought provoking, regardless of whether we’d agree on every point (we wouldn’t, but we would on many).

I think its important to hear what they have to say, so I wanted to highlight it. Check out their blogs. A few interesting posts of late:

@A church for starving artists:

• Never Been Kissed: on the Susan Boyle phenomenon and what it says about us spiritually.
• ISO Edgy Interim Pastors: on what makes for a good interim pastorate, what makes for a crappy one, and how to tell the difference, plus a plea to the church to get to work on improving this important ministry.
• Sabbatical as Worship: well, just read it; on what is cringeworthy about “contemporary worship” and expanding our ideas of what worship is to go beyond Sunday morning at 11am (or whatever)…

@Tribal Church

• Better Vision: On present statistics about pastors seeking calls and available positions, and our the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s abysmal trackrecord of late with New Church Developments.
• Pointers for Pastoral Nominating Committees: Really, really, really good advice for those who might find themselves sitting on a PNC.
• Hot Passionate Conservatives and Icy-Cold Liberals: Tackling some stereotypes about church growth, pastoral makeup, and some future trends of our churches.

In the meantime, buy and read Carol’s book and get ready for both her next one and the one Jan is wrapping up. It will be worth it to spend some time with these really wonderful thinkers…