The Ministry Collaborative

As many of us grieve the passing of our friend and colleague, Lamar Hardwick , I wanted to share a conversation I shared with him a little over 5 years ago. I listened to it again today and found it just as powerful and resonant now as it was then. So grateful for Lamar's ministry and witness.
- Adam B

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1FOEPFIPX2ama58yRLu7q1?si=kgE_qHxZQLm1fNkE9bce7Q

Disability and the Church: A Conversation with Lamar Hardwick The Ministry Collaborative Podcast · Episode

New podcast episode! 🎙️

“Great Companions on This Journey: A Round Table Conversation on Facilitation”

https://mministry.org/podcast/great-companions-on-this-journey-a-round-table-conversation-on-facilitation/

TMC Program Staff Adam Borneman, Jennifer Watley Maxell, and Mark Ramsey talk with Elizabeth Lynn (Shifting Ground) about creating space for deeper reflection, alignment vs. agreement, and why facilitation is a critical tool for all areas of ministry.

⁠Contact TMC Staff about Facilitation Training (https://mministry.org/contact/).

Episode Transcript (https://mministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/06-03-26.pdf).

Listen now! 🎧

“Series Recap & Key Takeaways: Staying Rooted in a Ministry of Presence”

https://mministry.org/series-recap-key-takeaways-staying-rooted-in-a-ministry-of-presence/

Over the past few weeks, we have explored what it means to be relentlessly relational, not just as a tagline for our work, but as a lens for thinking about ministry more broadly. What does it actually look like to prioritize relationships in a culture that rewards efficiency, scale, and measurable results?

Sherrad Hayes helped ground that question in It Starts with the Vine, Not the Fruit (https://mministry.org/it-starts-with-the-vine-not-the-fruit/), reminding us that relational ministry does not begin with outcomes. It begins with abiding. Staying connected to Christ is the source of everything lasting, and when we lose sight of that, it does not take long before ministry becomes marred by frustration or exhaustion.

From there, Mark Ramsey’s Barriers (https://mministry.org/barriers/) brought the conversation into the realities of relationship and belonging. Instead of treating obstacles between people as problems to eliminate as quickly as possible, he invited us to consider what it looks like to meet one another within them. Drawing on Jesus’ practice of table fellowship, he reminded us that belonging often grows through presence, through staying, listening, and refusing to disengage when things get complicated.

Amy Valdez Barker’s Out of Place, Into Purpose (https://mministry.org/out-of-place-into-purpose-creative-dislocation-and-the-deepening-of-our-connections-calling-and-capacity-for-ministry/) continued that thread by reflecting on the experience of disorientation. When we find ourselves outside familiar rhythms or environments, it can feel unsettling, but she helped us see how those moments can open up space for deeper dependence on God and a renewed attentiveness to others.

And finally, Adam Borneman’s Inefficiency, Inconvenience, and Interruption (https://mministry.org/inefficiency-inconvenience-and-interruption-gospel-witness-in-the-age-of-the-actual/) named something many of us feel but often resist. The gospel rarely operates on our timelines. It shows up in interruptions, in unplanned conversations, and in the moments that feel like they are getting in the way of real work. Those are often the very places where relational ministry takes root.

What comes into focus is how prioritizing relationship in these various ways reshapes the posture of ministry. It requires a different way of showing up, one that resists the constant pull toward efficiency and instead makes room for presence, patience, and attentiveness. That is the invitation we keep coming back to. To abide before we produce. To stay engaged when things get complicated. To pay attention when we are interrupted or out of place. It may be that these times and places are not detours or distractions from the work, but the work itself.

New podcast episode! 🎙️

“The Yearning Beyond Their Walls: A Round Table Conversation on Recent Church Attendance Data”

https://mministry.org/podcast/the-yearning-beyond-their-walls-a-round-table-conversation-on-recent-church-attendance-data/

TMC Program Staff Ryan Bonfiglio, Adam Mixon, Mark Ramsey, and Adam Borneman discuss the April data from the ⁠Hartford Center for Religion Research⁠ (https://hirr.hartfordinternational.edu) on church attendance trends, as well as what it might – and most certainly doesn’t – tell us about ministry today.

⁠Read the April, 2026, Report⁠ (https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/research/national-survey-research/signs-of-rebound-amid-uneven-recovery-the-changing-congregational-landscape/)

Episode Transcript (https://mministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/05-27-26.pdf).

Listen now! 🎧

“Inefficiency, Inconvenience, and Interruption: Gospel Witness in the ‘Age of the Actual’” - Adam
Borneman

https://mministry.org/inefficiency-inconvenience-and-interruption-gospel-witness-in-the-age-of-the-actual/

“Our systems are trained to ask, ‘Is this worth the time and investment?’ Jesus keeps asking, ‘Is this one worth my Father’s love?’ The real calculus is not ‘What will this do for the bottom line?’
but ‘Who is missing from the table, and what are we willing to set aside so that we can all feast together?’

We are therefore faced with challenging questions that cannot remain hypothetical but must be made concrete: which meetings, which line items, which long-standing programs are we willing to sacrifice to be interruptible, inconvenienced, and faithfully inefficient? Which forms of polish and control can we relinquish in order to pursue a deeper gospel witness that might be interpreted by some as a ‘waste’ of time, energy, and resources?

Witness in an age of the actual will sound simple and costly: you can call, you can come by, we will be here, we will call you by name. This has to be true not only of congregations but of the individuals who participate in congregational life, deciding each day whether their lives will be interruptible, available, and a little less optimized than the culture demands. If a congregation cannot wrestle honestly with these costs in its own neighborhood, the message probably won’t matter. In our ‘communicational crisis,’ the world is understandably less interested in messages, statements, and performative slogans. What it is still wondering is whether anyone is willing to live without the protective distance that keeps us from one another.

Taken together, inefficiency, inconvenience, and interruption point toward an alternative imagination of witness, suggesting that a congregation’s calling in the community is not first to market itself effectively or implement impressive initiatives, but to become a people with whom neighbors can share in our inescapably fraught, gritty, complex human reality. This will mean listening before speaking, joining what is already happening before starting something new, and valuing forms of faithfulness that are difficult to quantify. It will mean refusing to treat neighbors as audiences, constituents, clients, recipients, or even potential congregation members, learning instead to receive them as fellow laborers in a shared place and time for the common good.”

Read today’s blog post in its entirety by clicking the link above ⬆️

New podcast episode!

“An Actual Encounter with the Resurrected Savior: A Round Table Conversation on Witness”

https://mministry.org/podcast/an-actual-encounter-with-the-resurrected-savior-a-round-table-conversation-on-witness/

TMC Program Staff Mark Ramsey, Adam Mixon, Ryan Bonfiglio, and Adam Borneman discuss the importance of bearing witness to both injustice and joy, why resurrection calls us to solidarity with those who suffer, and how prophetic preaching ought to be marked by energizing hope.

Episode Transcript (https://mministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/05-20-26.pdf).

“Out of Place, Into Purpose: Creative Dislocation and the Deepening of Our Connections, Calling, and Capacity for Ministry” - Amy Valdez Barker

https://mministry.org/out-of-place-into-purpose-creative-dislocation-and-the-deepening-of-our-connections-calling-and-capacity-for-ministry/

Recently, I had the opportunity to join one of our TMC cohorts on a visit to Greece where we explored the Holy Spirit’s work through Paul and his colleagues in Macedonia with the Jews in diaspora.

As I looked back at the hundreds of photographs I captured, it reminded me of the hours of laughter, the touching moments of reflection, and the transformational encounters we had as we took this trip during the Eastern Orthodox Holy Week. We were blessed to have this experience between the traditional Catholic/Protestant Easter Sunday and the Greek Eastern Orthodox Easter Sunday. Our hosts shared with us how Easter is experienced in Greece and how almost everyone in the community rallies together to acknowledge and celebrate the resurrection. Our group was basking in the grace of experiencing Easter as a participant, not as a leader worried about the details of the rituals we were leading.

On Good Friday, there is a tradition of the Epitaphios ritual where hundreds and thousands of people across the country pour out into the streets to watch the parade of the symbols of Christ’s burial. Our group joined them, curious about this ritual that atheists, agnostics, and marginally religious people joined in to get a glimpse of the bier that was adorned with flowers and candles and herbs representing the sacrifice of Christ for all. It subtly disrupted many of the assumptions we tend to carry about the relationship of congregations, seekers, and the broader community.

In the ancient archaeological site of Philippi, we walked where Paul walked daily, through the Agora and to the Basilica to pray. Here, Paul encountered the female slave whose owners had him and Silas seized and sent to prison because they healed her (Acts 16:16-24). Our cohort gathered around the prison cell where Paul and Silas had been kept in captivity. One of our cohort members read the passage and then reflected upon those in the U.S. who had been held in captivity and especially those who had died while in those places. As he read each name, tears rolled down the faces of some of our friends, thinking about the lives lost and the lives saved and the work that we are all called to do in the midst of pain and suffering. We wrestled with the meaning of the resurrection during this high and Holy Week for those who were still suffering. We sat with the pain Jesus carried as those closest to him fell away, one by one, under the weight of what was coming – and yet he pressed on, bearing the cross out of a love that refused to let any of us go. As we sat in these heavy moments, our cohort leaned into one another in awe and wonder as we unpacked not only what Paul, Timothy, and Silas faced, but also how it might inspire and help grow our capacity for ministry today.

To experience an Easter culture full of vastly different traditions than our own awakened in our group a new sense of awe as we thought about how the people in our congregations may see the rituals and traditions differently than the way we do as those leading the services.

For some of us, this past Easter (in the U.S.) had felt like just going through the motions. But, after this encounter with the Orthodox Easter one week later, we were reveling in the energy that permeated the air of a new kind of hope in the resurrection. It was a different lens that helped us reimagine how we might approach Easter 2027 from the perspective of one who does not know or understand the rituals and traditions that we engage with a sense of repetitive familiarity.

The gift Greece offered us was far more than a change of scenery. It was an unexpected encounter with the living God, one that drew us closer to each other, reignited the call that first set us apart for ministry, and stretched our capacity for faithful work in ways that will ripple through our congregations and communities long after we returned home.

****

1. What ministry “motions” are you going through that have lost meaning and value for you as a leader?

2. When was the last time you experienced a new ritual or tradition from another faith community or another culture?

3. What mysteries of God’s love and grace invite you into awe and wonder with the people you walk with in your community?

4. Who are the leaders of faith that you can lean on and process with as you discover something new about your rituals and traditions?

New podcast episode! 🎙️

“This Prophetic Task: A Round Table Conversation on Grief and Hope”

https://mministry.org/podcast/this-prophetic-task-a-round-table-conversation-on-grief-and-hope/

Mark Ramsey and Beth Daniel (with a cameo from our producer, Marthame Sanders) discuss Walter Brueggemann’s three-fold assessment of the prophetic tasks of the church: to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.

Episode Transcript (https://mministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/05-13-26.pdf).

Listen now! 🎧

“Barriers” - Mark Ramsey

https://mministry.org/barriers/

According to a recent story, Pope Leo XIV ran into a wall of sorts when he tried to change his contact information with his bank in Chicago.

About two months after the Chicago-born cardinal became Pope Leo XIV and moved to Vatican City, he put in a call to his bank back home. The new pope identified himself as Robert Prevost and said that he wished to change the phone number and address the bank had on file.

The pope dutifully answered the security questions correctly. Then, the woman on the line told him it wasn’t enough — he would have to come to a branch in person.

“He said, ‘Well, I’m not going to be able to do that… I gave you all the security questions.”

The bank employee apologized but stood firm. The pope tried a different tack. “Would it matter to you if I told you I’m Pope Leo?” She hung up.

Look, if the Pope can’t break through the impersonal walls the rest of us run into every day, what hope do we have?

Technology has given us tools to erect barriers. Oh, they don’t seem like barriers at first. But they prevent us, over time, from making meaningful contact with other human beings.

Don’t talk to a customer service representative about your delayed flight, use their chat.

Don’t talk to a pharmacist about your prescription, just type your info into the check-in screen.

Don’t send someone personal birthday greetings, Facebook can do that for you in a click.

Each of these may be more efficient (that is up for debate), but they are not relational.

Faith communities, in all their forms, are first a relational enterprise. Efficiency (although often invoked by church board members who, with good intentions, believe “the church should operate more like a business”) is not a value that Jesus modeled.

His model, through the gospels, is one of being relentless relational.

Jesus goes to people rather than waiting for them.

The call of Matthew (Luke 5:27–28) — Jesus walks past a tax collector’s booth and simply says, “follow me.” No prior relationship, no credentials checked. He initiates a relationship across a social boundary that most religious teachers would have treated as a wall. It’s the same with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10). Jesus spots him in a tree and invites himself to dinner before Zacchaeus has done anything to merit it.

Jesus notices the overlooked individual in the crowd.

The woman with the hemorrhage (Mark 5:25–34) — A crowd is pressing in on him. He’s on his way to answer an urgent request from a synagogue ruler, and yet he stops everything to ask, “who touched me?” His disciples think the question is absurd. He insists. The point isn’t only about healing; it’s that she must be seen and named, not just cured anonymously in the crowd.

Jesus takes conversation seriously as a form of care.

The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) — Jesus breaks through three taboos simultaneously (gender, ethnicity, moral reputation) and then stays in the conversation despite the woman’s deflections, gently redirecting, refusing to let her change the subject from herself. He doesn’t lecture; he draws out. The conversation is the ministry.

Jesus allows himself to be moved.

“Jesus wept” (John 11:35) — This phrase is easy to sentimentalize, but notice the surrounding verses. He already knows he will raise Lazarus. He weeps anyway. The relationality isn’t strategic; it’s participatory. He enters grief rather than managing it from a safe distance.

Jesus personalizes encounters even under pressure.

Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52) — The crowd tries to silence him. Jesus, headed toward Jerusalem and whatever awaits him there, stops. “What do you want me to do for you?” He asks the question even though the answer seems obvious. The asking itself is relational; it honors the other’s voice.

Jesus uses meals as primary ministry space.

The practice of table fellowship throughout the Gospels, with tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, disciples, and crowds on hillsides, is relentlessly relational. Meals in first-century Jewish culture weren’t casual; they encoded belonging and honor. Jesus uses that cultural grammar deliberately, making inclusion at the table a form of proclamation.

Jesus stays present in the face of failure and denial.

The charcoal fire breakfast (John 21) – This is one of the most carefully constructed relational moments in Scripture. Jesus doesn’t address Peter’s betrayal directly. Over a charcoal fire that evokes the charcoal fire where Peter denied him, Jesus now feeds him, then asks the same question three times. He rehabilitates through persistent presence, not through a speech about forgiveness.

For all the good-hearted attempts to “keep the church relevant,” may I suggest that we have all we need? People in all manner of social locations are starving for, yearning for, someone to see them, hear them, talk with them, care about them, break bread with them, remain present in the face of their failures.

We don’t need greater efficiency. We need an absolute commitment to follow our Savior into breaking down barriers and being relentlessly relational.