By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director When I was in my last parish call, I was fortunate to receive a detailed demographic report from the office...
Celebrating Shifting Gears
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Posts by Mary Frances
Beyond the Palms: Resurrection as Public Witness
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director Spring is a relentless theologian. No matter how brutal the winter or how dead the ground appears, little...
Why My Call Led Me to Help the Church Change
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director I recently met a pastor in my new community. In the course of our conversation, we found out that we had some...
Holy Disruption: Why Your Church Needs to Take Risks to Thrive
For decades, the Church has prioritized preservation over mission. We have maintained buildings, protected budgets, and clung to familiar programs. But preservation is not the Gospel call. The Gospel is a call to resurrection—and resurrection requires, to put it bluntly, death. In today’s rapidly shifting cultural landscape, churches that are unwilling to take risks are not playing it safe; they are slowly dying. Conversely, churches that embrace holy disruption are discovering vitality they never imagined possible.
When Christmas Work Meets Minneapolis Streets: Thurman’s Call and Our Collective Task
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director and Senior Consultant The tinsel is packed away, the holiday music has faded, and for many, the rhythmic...
The Hidden Landscape
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director My new home came with a yard now buried under a pristine blanket of winter snow. To my eye, it’s a flat,...
The Right People
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director and Senior Consultant I've been thinking so much this past week about what it means to have the right people...
The Sacred Art of Letting Go: Why Churches Must Release the Old to Embrace the New
By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director and Senior Consultant I mentioned a few weeks ago that my husband and I are in the midst of a big transition....
