Associated Baptist Press

Amy Butler

Talk With the Preacher

Opinion: Getting a life -- and giving life

Talk With the Preacher

By Amy Butler

Thursday, July 29, 2010

(ABP) -- When young pastors ask me for advice on self-care (insert uproarious laughter here) I always say that one very important part of survival in the trenches of ministry is getting a life. Outside the church.

Talk With the Preacher

By Amy Butler

Thursday, July 15, 2010

(ABP) -- Warning: this column is purely a pastor’s summer rant. While I often feel alone in these sentiments, I strongly suspect that other pastors out there share my feelings. Thus, I’ve recorded them here just to see if, by any chance, anybody else might share similar thoughts.

Talk With the Preacher

By Amy Butler

Thursday, July 01, 2010

(ABP) -- Seems like everybody likes to use the phrase “prophetic leadership” when it comes to the church. It sounds deeply theological and also a little daring, don’t you think?

Talk With the Preacher

By Amy Butler

Thursday, June 17, 2010

(ABP) -- When I first took up preaching every Sunday I made the decision to follow the Revised Common Lectionary as a guide for worship planning. It would be nice to say that I chose to do this because I wanted to lead my congregation to stand in solidarity with Christians around the world (or some other equally spiritual-sounding reason), but the cold hard truth of the matter is that, even by that young age I had already heard way too many sermons in which the pastor clearly had run out of ideas and had walked into the pulpit that morning with something he’d dug up in a place not too many of us would want to go.

Talk With the Preacher

By Amy Butler

Thursday, June 03, 2010

(ABP) -- I work right around the corner from The Gallup Organization's headquarters here in Washington, so I’ll just say up front that the informal poll I recently took on Facebook should not be considered strictly scientific.

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