Alexander Campbell, an influential figure in the Christian Restoration Movement, from which came the tradition of which I am a part—the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—was a regular journal writer.

I was actually talking about this practice recently with my middle school daughter, telling her that podcasting and Substack are, in many ways, modern forms of that same practice.

Campbell edited and authored two journals, first The Christian Baptist from 1823 to 1830, then The Millennial Harbinger from 1830 to 1866.

More, in 1835, he wrote a comprehensive statement of faith, The Christian System: In Reference to the Union of Christians, and a Restoration of Primitive Christianity in the Current Reformation, which he revised and expanded four years later.

Reading recently about Campbell, one author noted that:

“His essays on the kingdom of heaven show a creative, deeply scriptural imagination wrestling with the formation of an eschatological community of faith on the American frontier.”

Campbell was also a skilled debater, both on the printed page and in person.

He was described as the leader of “Thundering Legions” of followers, an incredibly influential voice as his Disciples movement was “growing like a prairie fire” along the Midwestern frontier.

Now, to be fair, it’s likely that few outside the Restoration or Stone-Campbell Movement (Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, and Independent Christian Churches) have ever even heard of Alexander Campbell.

Still, his historical example is worth remembering, if only because it is so relevant to our own context today.

Forming People From a Distance

First, due to the constraints of time, travel, and resources, it’s likely that Campbell was forming people through his writing whom he would never meet in person.

And perhaps one of the best examples of this was his understanding of communion.

Campbell lamented that within the Presbyterian circles in which he had been raised, communion was often restricted to those who had been approved to participate. Even Christians from other traditions, such as Baptists or Congregationalists, who shared many theological similarities, could be excluded from the table.

In fact, I have a communion token in my bag, a small metal token of the sort once used by churches to identify who was permitted to receive communion. No token, no communion.

Campbell challenged this understanding, advocating for greater Christian unity at the communion table, even as his own views on participation and baptism were more complicated than the fully open table practiced by many Disciples congregations today.

But here’s where I think the formational element becomes particularly interesting.

Through his writing, Campbell was not simply trying to convince people to think differently about communion. He was encouraging them to practice communion differently.

And as congregations began putting those ideas into practice, they were also being formed by them. Gathering around the table reinforced a different understanding of Christian unity, belonging, and the nature of the church itself.

In other words, Campbell’s writing helped change a practice, and that practice helped form a people.

Many of those people likely never met Campbell personally. Yet his influence extended beyond the printed page into the actual worship and life of their congregations.

And while Campbell distributed his writings on paper and we distribute ours through the interwebs, we still face many of the same challenges.

How do we communicate something meaningful to people we may never meet?

How do we encourage people not simply to consider new ideas, but to put those ideas into practice?

And how might those practices, in turn, shape the communities in which they participate?

Those questions aren’t entirely new.

A different kind of frontier

Second, like Campbell then, we too exist in a sort of digital and sociological frontier.

Now, I recognize that implicit within Campbell’s understanding of the frontier was certainly some disrespect, if not disdain, for Indigenous populations already residing there. The frontier was hardly an empty space waiting for Christians to arrive.

Nevertheless, Campbell was trying to reach and influence people in new and forming towns and communities.

Today, we find ourselves in a somewhat different situation.

Rather than working on the front end of a growing Christian movement, we’re often working on the back end of the bell curve, where Christian influence is rapidly being lost in many communities, but there are similarities.

The old structures and assumptions no longer work as they once did. People are scattered across different communities, networks, and platforms. And we’re trying to figure out how to communicate, connect, and form people in a changing cultural landscape.

In that sense, the digital world is something of a new frontier for ministry.

We’re trying to do something new also!

Third, like Campbell, we’re trying to start a new movement.

Substack Seminary is meant to be that. And many of you reading this are also trying to start something new!

Maybe it’s a church, a nonprofit, a podcast, a writing project, or some other expression of ministry that doesn’t fit neatly within the traditional institutional structures we’ve inherited.

And perhaps, like Campbell, much of your influence will happen through people you never meet.

Someone reads something you’ve written. Someone listens to a podcast episode. Someone shares an idea with a colleague. A ministry leader takes something you’ve said and tries it in their own context.

You may never know about it—but that doesn’t mean formation isn’t happening.

Of course, there’s an important distinction between influencing someone and forming them. Christian formation involves more than simply consuming information; it involves practices, relationships, and communities in which our convictions are lived out.

And perhaps that’s part of what makes Campbell’s example so interesting. He wasn’t simply writing for isolated individuals. His writings were helping shape a movement of congregations and Christians who were putting those ideas into practice in their own communities.

Campbell didn’t have to meet everyone he influenced because he wasn’t the only person involved in their formation.

I wonder if that’s an important lesson for those of us working in digital spaces today. Maybe our task isn’t to provide everything people need for formation, but to offer something that contributes to the formation already happening in their lives and communities.

What can we learn from Campbell?

The point is that I think we’re in a similar space to Campbell, at least in the sense that we can learn from his example.

A few things come to mind:

1. Have something unique and compelling to say. Campbell wasn’t simply repeating what everyone else was saying. He had a particular vision for the church and was willing to articulate it, defend it, and invite others into it.

   What is the particular contribution you’re trying to make?

   Or, to say it differently, what’s your niche?

2. Stick with it. Campbell wrote for YEARS. Not weeks or months, but decades. It’s easy to get discouraged when a blog post doesn’t get much engagement or a podcast episode doesn’t reach many people. But influence and formation often happen over time, through consistent engagement.

   I’ve been doing my Future Christian podcast for about 6 years and am finally nearing 50k downloads.

3. Pray and trust that the Spirit is at work. We can write, teach, publish, and share, but we cannot control what happens on the other end. Christian formation has never been simply a matter of delivering the right information. We trust that the Spirit is at work in ways we may never see.

   And, let me add this—faithfulness and fruitfulness are not necessarily connected.

4. Remember that you’re part of a long lineage. We’re hardly the first people trying to shape and influence others whom we’ll likely never meet. Whether through letters, journals, books, radio, television, podcasts, or Substack, Christians have long used the communication tools available to them to reach beyond their immediate communities.

Why this matters for Substack Seminary

At Substack Seminary, we’re trying to help leaders navigate the changing landscape of church and ministry, often through the very tools we’re discussing.

And like Campbell, we’re doing so with the recognition that many of the people reading, listening, and learning may never meet us in person.

But perhaps that’s part of the opportunity.

We don’t have to be physically present with everyone we hope to influence or encourage.

We do, however, need to be intentional about what we’re communicating, consistent in showing up, and trusting that God can use our efforts in ways we may never fully recognize.

And perhaps we should also be asking ourselves whether we’re simply sharing ideas or encouraging practices that might actually shape how people lead, worship, and live.

So, here’s a question for this week:

Who are you trying to form or influence through your ministry, even if you may never meet them? And what are you doing consistently to make that possible?

Source note: Historical background on Alexander Campbell is drawn from Stephen V. Sprinkle’s Disciples and Theology: Understanding the Faith of a Covenant People

Substack Seminary is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.

During Quarters, you’ll get blogs thematic blogs:

• Q1: Vision & Systematic Change

• Q2: Structure & Business Model

• Q3: Theology & Community

• Q4: Technology & Collaboration

Paid FRP subscribers join Conversations live on Thursdays at 3:30 Eastern (during Quarters), and get the replay + chat invitation on Mondays.


You don’t have to do this alone. Subscribe to join the ‘home for weirdo pastors’.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

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• We are in Q4, and we are talking about technology and collaboration, while looking honestly at Substack Seminary itself. We’re still figuring this out ourselves.

• Loren’s blog and Dr. Debra’s ‘belong’ framework: ‘Build shared purpose. Enable meaningful participation. Listen and learn’… plus opportunities for relationship, nurture community leadership.

• 6,0…

Read more

It’s Friday, October 23. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: finding Good News beyond bad news

‘You could start an evangelical media outlet right now and get a bigger audience, bigger staff, and bigger budget and it still could not match the legacy and heft of Christianity Today. It’s just not possible to replicate the conditions of Billy Graham in 1956: his goodwill and cachet and the high religiosity and monoculture media environment that made a magazine of his founding such a heavyweight not only within the American church but in the wider discourse.’

‘When churches die, it leaves a hole in the hearts of the congregation and in the surrounding community. But church decline and death aren’t the last word, and in today’s vibrant and creative time of gospel ministry who knows what might be in store? While America’s past spiritual landscape is changing, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The future landscape may be even better.’

‘The choice facing every church is not no pain or great pain. It’s pain that leads to death or pain that leads to life.

There is no scenario that offers a pain-free option. It doesn’t exist. Our only choice is which kind of pain we will embrace.’

‘I have been going on retreat from things I can’t control, situations over which I have no influence, circumstances that are beyond me. Most of us have neither the calling nor the capacity to love from a great distance. With so much seemingly at our fingertips, our attention is constantly being pulled north, south, east, west—further and further. The sense of overload is real, but it’s also deceptive. To feel powerless in the face of the world’s woes can often trick me into forgetting how much I actually can do to care for the little corner I inhabit and bless those who are in my closer circles of community and cultivate goodness nearby.’

‘The coin bears Caesar’s image, it belongs to Caesar. You can give him that. And no matter what the coin says, he’s not god. And what really matters is that you bear God’s image. You belong to God. And the point of your whole existence is to give yourself to the God who created you.’

‘This past week, I experienced this. Two of my dearest writer friends got an opportunity I didn’t, and my heart burned. I genuinely want them to be happy, and I genuinely want them to have all the success in the entire world, but I also want to reject it out of covetousness, out of bitterness. Why did they get that opportunity and I didn’t?’

This week at Free Range Priest:

☕️ I published a book!

Ok, self-published. and ok, kind of guide, not a ‘book-book’.

But still. It’s on Amazon and Apple! I kind of feel legit :). You can get the book directly - or you get a free copy when you become a paid subscriber of Free Range Priest (and paid subscribers, if you didn’t get your copy, let me know. The link is also in every Tuesday email…)

I’m excited about this not just for the ‘book’ part, but because I finally managed to put all the different guiding principles I’ve learned and discovered as a Free Range Priest into one place.

Like:

• Rubric 12: Give up trying to save the institution!! (the exclamation points are key…)
  
  and

• Rubric 8: Wondering where God is in all of this

Substack Seminary is community for Cage Free Ministers

And this Quarter, we’re talking about Technology and Collaboration

This week we’re specifically discussing: ‘How do strangers become community members?’

We’re focusing on both technology and collaboration by thinking about our ‘About’ pages, welcome email sequences, and subscriber (donor, pledger) paths to membership and belonging.

Creating these technical paths requires us to look honestly at how people are engaging in community and how we’re fostering that. And we’re starting with ourselves.

spells it out:

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment:

He counts the number of the stars

and calls them all by their names.

• Psalm 147:4
  
  I stepped outside to see Orion balanced perfectly above the lake. And was reminded of God placing the stars in the sky.
  

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

How many Facebook groups are you a part of?

Remember Facebook groups? While they’re still a thing, in recent years—especially with the overall decline in Facebook usage and the growing influence of image- and video-based platforms like Instagram and TikTok—the Facebook group seems very last century.

By my count, I’m part of nearly fifty groups, though many aren’t very active at all, with one group I’m part of having last been active seven years ago!

The point is that it’s very easy to join a group—but staying active and engaged? Well, that’s another story.

Why online community takes more work

Trying to engage this dynamic a little more, I came across the work of Dr. Debra Mynar-Kowalchuk, a community engagement strategist who helps businesses, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations create communities that foster meaningful connection and member belonging.

According to her website, she began paying attention to this challenge while working at a university, where she led their online learning platform and recognized the challenges faced by adult learners seeking connection in a commuter environment.

Having completed two degrees (mostly) online, I can understand her challenge.

When I began my M.Div. program at Phillips Seminary, I didn’t feel like I was actually a student until second semester when I arrived on campus for a weeklong intensive course, meeting other students and faculty in person.

Mynar-Kowalchuk writes about this, noting that:

“In-person communities often form naturally when people with shared experiences, interests, or goals gather together. Physical proximity creates opportunities for spontaneous interaction, connection, and relationship-building, allowing communities to grow organically over time.”

Which is very much what I encountered that first week in Tulsa as I met, hung out, and enjoyed meals with other students—all things VERY hard to replicate online.

Remember COVID “lunch” meetings, when it quickly became apparent that staring at someone else eating wasn’t enjoyable at all?

Mynar-Kowalchuk wisely notes that virtual communities require a more intentional approach.

Membership isn’t the same as belonging

Mynar-Kowalchuk warns that the most important thing is meaningful engagement, which leads to feelings of belonging.

Remember all those Facebook groups I’m connected to? Well, it’s hard to say I’m meaningfully engaged in any more than maybe a few—meaning I certainly don’t feel like I belong to the rest.

Mynar-Kowalchuk advises that:

“Successful online communities depend on active nurturing, consistent interaction, and thoughtful structure to encourage participation and trust among members…When newcomers see an environment that is welcoming, active, and well-maintained, they are more likely to feel safe, participate confidently, and contribute to the community’s growth.”

So, what might that intentional approach look like to foster meaningful engagement and create belonging?

The BELONG framework

Mynar-Kowalchuk has a helpful framework she calls BELONG.

B = Build Shared Purpose

Communities begin with a clear reason for existing.

Outcome: Members understand why they belong.

E = Enable Meaningful Participation

People need ways to contribute, not just consume.

Outcome: Participation becomes natural and rewarding.

L = Listen and Learn

Healthy communities evolve through member feedback.

Outcome: Members feel valued and respected.

O = Open Opportunities for Relationship Building

Relationships are the foundation of community.

Outcome: Stronger networks and social capital.

N = Nurture Community Leadership

Communities grow when leadership is distributed.

Outcome: Shared ownership and sustainability.

G = Grow Sustainably

Communities require intentional stewardship.

Outcome: Long-term impact and resilience.

Intentionality and consistency

Intentionality and consistency are the two words I would most emphasize from her insights.

In-person events and gatherings have a sort of magnetism and friction that make staying easier and leaving harder. Online spaces and communities must be intentionally fostered.

As she notes:

“Great communities are built with trust, consistency, and care.”

And perhaps that’s the challenge for those of us trying to build online communities. It’s relatively easy to get people to join. But creating a space where people actually engage, develop relationships, and feel like they belong takes considerably more intentionality.

What about Substack Seminary?

At Substack Seminary, we’re all about helping leaders navigate the future challenges of church and ministry leadership. But if we’re going to talk about building meaningful communities, we ought to be willing to examine how we’re doing that ourselves.

After all, we don’t want Substack Seminary to become just another one of those fifty groups people join but rarely engage with!

We want this to be a place where people are not only learning from us, but also learning from one another—sharing ideas, asking questions, experimenting, and building relationships with others navigating similar challenges in ministry.

And if Mynar-Kowalchuk is right that meaningful engagement requires intentionality, then we can’t simply assume that will happen on its own.

So we’d genuinely like to hear from you.

What’s working for you in online communities? What isn’t? What have you experienced in other groups that makes you want to keep coming back?

And perhaps most importantly, what could we be doing here at Substack Seminary to help you feel more connected, engaged, and part of this community?

Let us know in the comments. After all, building a community isn’t something we can do entirely on our own.

Substack Seminary is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.

During Quarters, you’ll get blogs thematic blogs:

• Q1: Vision & Systematic Change

• Q2: Structure & Business Model

• Q3: Theology & Community

• Q4: Technology & Collaboration

Paid FRP subscribers join Conversations live on Thursdays at 3:30 Eastern (during Quarters), and get the replay + chat invitation on Mondays.


You don’t have to do this alone. Subscribe to join the ‘home for weirdo pastors’.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It’s Friday, October 15. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

☕️ I turn 60 tomorrow!

So I’m running the half marathon leg of a 70.3 Ironman!

It seems like the best party I can imagine - and I want to celebrate being healthy and fit (at my advanced age)!

Still, I can’t believe I’m this old. I feel so much younger. I was talking with my mom this week and she said: ‘YOU feel old! My daughter is 60!’ Fair enough.

Which is probably why I’m drawn this week to articles that ask unanswerable questions. ‘Why did that parishioner leave?’ ‘Why are we trying so hard to save this church?’ ‘What does AI reveal about God?’ ‘Why do we have paragraphs?’

I guess some of them are answerable. But it feels more like marveling at the joyful mystery of it all.

Which I’m completely here for this week.

This week’s theme: all the things we don’t understand

‘When someone leaves, pastors are left with questions. You start to wonder where you failed. Was I too pushy? Did I ignore them? Did I not take a prayer request seriously?

‘When someone says, “We have to save this church,” they may really mean, “I cannot imagine my life without these people.” They may mean, “My spouse’s funeral was held here.” Or, “My children were baptized here.” Or, “This is the place where I learned that God loved me.” They may mean, “I have already watched so many things in my life change, and I do not want this to change too.”’

‘What I love most about it is that the calendar gives you permission to feel different things in different seasons. Not every Sunday has to be a mountaintop. Some seasons are for waiting, some are for grieving, and some are just for showing up and letting the roots grow.’

‘In seeing Christ we not only see God, but we see “all things” in the light of his glory. In this way, “reality” is not what we see and respond to. Jesus is reality. “Perspective” on any world event is seen through the bloodied man hung on a tree, a strange and empty grave on the outskirts of town, a child in a manger, his ascended and reigning life now.’

‘I’ve had to unlearn some of the habits I’ve worked so hard to inculcate for online writing.

All this put some questions in my mind: Where do our ideas about paragraphs come from? And why does the internet-native paragraph work so differently from its traditional cousin?

As is so often the case, the answer begins in Ancient Greece.’

This week at Free Range Priest:

☕️ ‘Can Cage Free Ministry be truly sustainable?’

It’s the story of my ministry, in more ways than one.

☕️ ‘Who’s in your network, And how do they know what you’re doing’ by

Substack Seminary is back in session!

The Q4 theme is Technology and Collaboration - and we are the case study! Join , Loren, and myself as we talk about how we work together, and how we promote and support each other’s work. Loren has a new book out, and we’re spreading the word. To help Loren, yes. But mostly because it’s full of helpful ideas for churches trying to go Cage Free!

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment:

Our spiritual practice is SO much like our physical exercise routine. It’s easy to say ‘Of course I pray!’ - like it’s easy to say ‘of course I work out!’ - but without a regular practice, it’s easy to let it fade away. S

ometimes I can’t remember if I’ve prayed yesterday! Or if I ran last week. A workout plan - a Rule of Life - helps us keep a rhythm and routine to our spiritual practice. It doesn’t have to be rigid! Just a guide to keep our relationship with God part of our daily routine.

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

This week we’re talking more tech tools, and continuing some of our conversation from last week about Customer Relationship Managers and what the work of networking and relationship management look like for the minister.

Shout out to , for another great blog this week!

• We talked about why “networking” has some off putting conotations.

• What relationship ma…

Read more

• I turned 60 on Saturday!!... I’m doing an Ironman relay on Saturday. So I’m thinking about running training.

• Like lots of folks, I end up on two ends of the spectrum: I’m gonna run 10 miles a day and 12 miles tomorrow - keep pushing until you get overwhelmed, exhausted, or injured and quit.

• The other end: ‘I ran last week, didn’t I? Like, when did I last …

Read more

, the fearless leader of Substack Seminary, has often said in our internal—and even external—conversations that we are all quite literally practitioners ourselves. Meaning, we’re not only trying to teach you how to do the work; we’re learning, trying, experimenting, and growing ourselves in real time.

Here’s one real-life example.

If you haven’t heard, I’ve just had a book published! The Church as Community Hub: Sharing Spaces to Help Neighborhoods Thrive, published by Church Publishing, is a practical and hopeful guide encouraging churches to rediscover their purpose as neighborhood anchors through community partnerships.

Like most authors, I’m trying to tap into the vast reaches of my network to see who hasn’t heard about my book and who might be willing to share it more broadly with someone within their own networks.

To that end, last week I made that request of Cathie.

She was willing, but then, like she’s good at doing, she pressed me to go further and write about it this week for Substack Seminary.

After all, we’re talking about networks this week!

When you don’t have an institutional network

I’ll say this firsthand: many—perhaps most—of us within the Substack Seminary orbit are people who operate outside the orbit of traditional institutions.

Whether it’s someone like , who quite literally started a church AND a denomination, or someone like me, who works within many denominations and ministry contexts, often to the detriment of having real, entrenched connections within any one of them.

In other words, most of us are much like the original “Free Range Priest,” Cathie Caimano.

We’re sort of making it up as we go along.

And I say this in connection with my book marketing efforts because when you don’t have an entrenched institutional connection—whether denominational or professional networks that can be easily tapped into—you have to work all the harder to intentionally build those relationships yourself.

Someone working within a denomination, university, or large nonprofit may have an established network of colleagues, newsletters, conferences, and organizational relationships to draw upon.

But what happens when your ministry doesn’t fit neatly within one of those institutions?

You have to be much more intentional about building a network of your own.

Building a network of your own

That’s one of the reasons, as I shared last week, why I’ve begun using Dex, a personal CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.

I’m trying to build out a network of my own since I don’t have one easily identifiable institutional network to tap into.

Obviously, I do have some nontraditional networks, like Substack and my podcast, . And those have been enormously helpful in connecting me with people I otherwise would never have met.

But the online space—while important—is also a busy, crowded space with so many competing demands for people’s attention.

Point being: personal connections, wherever possible, are still the best.

And I think that’s especially true for those of us doing ministry outside traditional institutions.

One of the reasons I like Dex so much is that it gives me daily reminders about who to contact. I can also assign each person a frequency for how often I want to keep in touch.

That way, I’m not simply reaching out to someone when I need something from them.

I’m intentionally maintaining relationships, keeping people within my network, and hopefully staying within theirs.

Because a network isn’t simply a collection of names or email addresses. It’s a collection of relationships that need to be cultivated.

Be intentional about your network

So, that’s my/our lesson for this week: Be very intentional about building out your network.

Especially if you’re doing ministry in unconventional ways, working across denominational boundaries, or building something new.

Don’t assume the relationships will simply happen on their own.

And don’t wait until you need something—like, say, help promoting a new book—to discover that you haven’t been keeping up with quite enough people!

Who are the people you want to stay connected with?

Who might you want to get to know better?

And who could you be encouraging or supporting in their own work?

After all, networking isn’t just about finding people who can help you. It’s also about becoming someone who can help others.

And speaking of networking...

Which brings me back to what inspired this blog in the first place.

I have indeed published a book!

The Church as Community Hub: Sharing Spaces to Help Neighborhoods Thrive explores how churches can rethink the use of their buildings, land, and resources to become neighborhood anchors through community partnerships.

And to help me build my book network, I’d be so grateful for your help!

Please consider buying the book directly from the publisher (use promo code HUB20 for 20% off) or wherever you get your books.

If you’re an Amazon user and have already bought the book, please take a moment to leave a review!

And finally, if you know someone who might be interested in the book—a pastor, denominational leader, nonprofit professional, or someone thinking about the future of church property—please pass this information along.

Or, if you’re interested in connecting more about the book yourself, let me know!

Let’s build each other’s networks!

Substack Seminary is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.

During Quarters, you’ll get blogs thematic blogs:

• Q1: Vision & Systematic Change

• Q2: Structure & Business Model

• Q3: Theology & Community

• Q4: Technology & Collaboration

Paid FRP subscribers join Conversations live on Thursdays at 3:30 Eastern (during Quarters), and get the replay + chat invitation on Mondays.


You don’t have to do this alone. Subscribe to join the ‘home for weirdo pastors’.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

’I need your help sorting this out.’

After almost 30 years in ministry - and 10 in business as a Free Range Priest - as a sacramentalist, worship leader, and future of church cheerleader, consultant, coach, teacher, and author - I know a lot of people in ministry. And a lot of them reach out.

They are clergy, (mostly) small congregations, and denominations. Lots of whom are already my friends - or they quickly start to feel like friends. None of whom tend to have a lot of spare cash.

They reach out to talk about a current dilemma in their ministry. I always want to help, and for years I would eagerly schedule coffee or a Zoom chat. I did not even consider charging money for this.

Then my husband pointed something out to me: I was giving away my best work.

I would go to coffee, listen, and strategize. I offered my best advice, encouragement, and counsel. I even followed up with them.

Then I would offer to coach them or consult with their organization. But most never became paying clients.

Why should they, when I had already
provided my work for free?

I had already waded into the messy world of Cage Free Ministry, where it is incredibly uncomfortable to face my own feelings about ‘asking’ for money for work that is intimate, personal, and spiritual. Work that is traditionally compensated as a salary from an organization - so if someone asks for a coffee meeting, the cost of that time (and advice/counseling) is already ‘covered’.

Even though my work involves a LOT of telling other ministers they should value their own work and get paid for it - I still struggle to do the same. And to create pathways for how to do this!

It starts with this: It’s ok to be paid for ministry. It’s more than ok - it’s crucial.

I have a clergy friend - serving as a salaried, associate pastor of a large church - who created a beautiful set of videos that welcomed newcomers to the faith. She planned to make them available to other congregations - and charge for access. Her senior pastor told her she could not, because it is ‘yucky’ to be putting a price tag on religious work.

I launched right into Free Range Priest action mode with her (as a ‘free consult’):

• Does a senior pastor have the right to tell a staff member they can’t have a ‘side gig’? Even a spiritual one?

• Is it wrong to charge for our creative work as ministers?

• And - most importantly - can we look closely at those the ‘yucky’ feelings about ministry and compensation?
  

This is the question I’ve been asking others to consider, that I have not fully considered myself: sorting out the feelings about ministry compensation.

I also think the future of church depends on it.

• LONG gone are the days when clergy got a full-time salary which might have been modest, but usually came with free housing.
  
  

• The movement towards requiring mainline congregations to provide a minimum approved salary, healthcare benefits and pension payments directly correlates with the decline of the institutional church.
  
  

• Today, most congregations cannot afford full-time clergy compensation packages, unless they have endowments or other denominational support.
  
  

• At the same time, I think we cover up our discomfort about compensating clergy for their work - and our increasing inability to do so - by implying that we shouldn’t expect to get paid for spiritual work! (imagine any other profession where the response to not getting paid is ‘you should just do it for free’!).
  
  

• So we end up with ministers who have to work secular jobs in order to support themselves and their families. And we call this ‘bi-vocational’.
  
  

• We can’t move forward into new models of what it means to be church if we won’t get real about our discomfort with ministry as a vocation - and a job. With compensating ministers fairly for our work. And expecting to be compensated fairly if we are ministers.
  

  
  

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When I decided to go ‘Free Range’, it was partially to use my own ministry as an experiment:
is it possible to make a living in ministry that is not full-time with a congregation?

And the answer is: YES. I think it’s possible. I know it is, in fact. AND … I’m still growing into it myself.

After 10 years, my income is still up and down. I remind myself that part of the reason for this is I take home less than 50% of what I bring in.

My husband’s salary puts me in a high tax bracket - so 25% of what I make goes to quarterly taxes.

And I have what’s called an Extension of Ministry. The bishop approves my work as ministry, then the Pension Fund allows my business (which is just me) to pay into my pension. Which is great, because I am still accumulating years of service in the church. And it means that 18% of everything I make goes into my pension (for at least the next few years until I officially retire).

So taxes, pension, and business expenses eat up 52% of my gross income!

But I’m coming to realize that’s not the only reason my ministry has struggled financially.

As I’ve been on this ‘Cage Free Ministry’ journey, I’ve been dealing with exactly the same ‘yucky’ feelings about compensation for my ministry that I counsel others about!

My business has not been consistently successful because I have not taken it seriously as a business. And I have not taken it seriously as a business because I am a minister.

I recently answered a question at ‘Ask Father Cathie’ about whether we can provide pastoral care and sacraments to members of a former congregation.

My short answer was ‘yes’, in some contexts, and hopefully in conversation with their current pastor. And that we should charge money for it! It is, after all, what salaried clergy get paid to do most often: pastoral visits and sacraments.

But even as I said it, I knew I would never go to someone’s hospital bedside with an invoice!

This feels far too transactional. And honestly, the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are not talking about money when we’re there at the hospital, either. But we do get a bill. And we expect one.


As I answered the question about pastoral care, I did think aloud about how to bridge that gap. One possibility is to offer ourselves directly to congregations/other pastors as ‘pastoral visit specialists’ or ‘funeral and wedding specialists’ - and create contracts with communities so they pay us for a certain amount of visitation per month, or directly for funeral/wedding officiating.

In other words, there are ways to preserve the sacred nature of our vocation - and also get paid for our work. That’s what salaried ministry traditionally does!

The trick is re-working the formula in ‘Cage Free’ ways.
And tolerating our complicated feelings about it.

It’s a trick I’m both teaching and still learning.

The truth is, if it were not for my husband’s corporate salary, I would not be able to pay my bills, and certainly not live at the economic level I do. That’s hard for me - for so many reasons:

• I want my ministry to be an example to others that new ways of sustainable ministry are possible.

• I measure my ministry’s success partially in financial terms. I think this is important for the church overall:

  • people pay for what they value.

  • If they value their work, they pay for it.

  • If we value our own work, others will, too.

  • If people aren’t paying for ministry (or giving to the church), then it’s obvious they are not seeing the value in it. This is a spiritual problem.

• I’m someone who has supported myself financially all my life, and it’s very hard to feel dependent.

  I call my husband ‘Jeff - my patron saint’. He also says that the most important work in the family is mine.
  

When I started Free Range Priest, I left a good-paying Diocesan job with benefits to basically make nothing as a start up. Jeff and I had two kids who were about to start college in the next two years. We did the math, and realized that we could make it work financially while I got my business going.

Then, just weeks after I made the leap, Jeff got laid off.

We went months without any income at all.

I asked him if he wanted me to go back to a regular church job. He said, ‘Is that what God is calling you to?’

No.

’Then let’s have faith that we’re going to get through this’.

And we did.

Today when people want to talk about a ministry dilemma, I send them my coaching link so they can schedule a time - and pay for it in advance.

Mostly. This is still a growing edge for me. I’m still a minister. If you grab me in the grocery store (or at a great party, as happened to me not long ago), I’m going to listen and give you my best advice.

Or if you are truly one of my besties, you will forever get free coaching. But I’ll tell you when I’m putting the coaching hat on, and when we’re just talking as friends.

Not long ago, I got an email from a former colleague. He was looking for some advice on how to to pivot his ministry. I replied with warm words - and my coaching link. I did not hear from him again.

I let myself struggle a little bit with my ‘yucky’ feelings - I should have helped him for free. He ‘just wanted to talk’. Then I reminded myself that this is my business. He was specifically asking for advice and direction, because I have expertise about how the church is changing, and how we can change our ministry to meet this moment.

And I realized I was taking my own advice by insisting to myself that my work is valuable and important.

Can Cage Free Ministry be truly sustainable?

I think it can be. I think it will be. I think it needs to be.

But it takes courage, vision, and faith. Which is still a work in progress for me.

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Become a Founding subscriber for personalized coaching, free courses, and a library of Cage Free Ministry concepts to help you reimagine your own ministry (coming soon).

At Free Range Priest, we're:

• Bridging the first and the 21st centuries - worship and practice from the earliest church with today’s agile, networked systems.

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It's still ministry. It just tastes better.

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Find the replays - and notes - for ALL of Free Range Priest’s publications. Paid and founding subscribers have permanent access to this library.

Ask Father Cathie

• ‘Can I provide pastoral care to former parishioners?’

• Should I take a $2,500 annual stipend for a chaplain job?

• Why - and *how* - you should move your ‘website’ to your Substack publication

• ‘Can we be friends with our parishioners?’

• ‘How do I get them to change?’ is not the question to ask

  
  

Substack Seminary Conversations

• How does community actually form?

• Networking as part of ministry

• Here’s the technology we use for our ministry

• ‘It’s like bringing your boyfriend to meet your parents’

• Substack Seminary Q3 starts Monday!

• Your ‘ideal’ congregant

• how to be ‘Cage free’ if you serve a denominational church (or if you don’t)

  
  

Trexo ‘Coffee with Coaches’

• Back to basics with Benedict

• Benedict of Nursia: Don’t confuse ‘solitary’ with ‘alone’

• Cyril of Jerusalem: The heart is high when it is with God and low when it is with cares.

• Diadochos of Photiki: ‘No one can say ‘Lord, Jesus’ except in the Holy Spirit’

• Hippolytus of Rome: ‘Your obstacle is not persecution - it’s distraction’
  
  

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
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SO much fun talking tech! And thank you, , for the blog!

• This quarter, our theme is connected ministry : technology and collaboration,’ starting with ‘what are the tools that we use?’
  

• ‘Even the Book of Common Prayer was a revolutionary advancement in church technology’ . ‘so how are we birthing the new church through the technology that we have access to…

Read more

It’s Friday, October 9. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

☕️ My life has been dominated by 60 lbs of 4 month old puppy this week!

This is Cash - my sweet shadow. He’s the best boy, who just wants to snuggle - and eat! The vet says he is going to be big - probably 150-160 when he’s full grown. So my husband and I are deep into socializing him - taking him nearly everywhere with us, which he loves.

Helping this gorgeous beast get used to human life and circumstances has me thinking about how animals and humans are alike - and so different. So I’m grateful this week to run across Haley Baumeister’s article (below), which introduced me to the book ’Neither Beast Nor God’ by Gilbert Meilaender.

It’s about human dignity - how we think about it, how we define it. What it has to do with our relationship with God.

And how much we struggle with socialization ourselves!

From the ‘epidemic of loneliness’ to the rise of childlessness to most of us having fewer friends and romantic relationships than we used to, it seems like we’re forgetting some of the steps of getting along. How? Why? What can we do about it?

This week’s theme: learning to be human

‘As you practice it, your intuition comes online again. Suddenly, even you will be surprised by the things you say. People will laugh just because of the way you say what you see. Whatever occurs to you becomes magic. It’s a way of letting go of all the pre-planning and the subsequent anxiety, and just being content with it all being boring, if it is. That way, you’re always ready to ride a wave when it emerges’.

‘I had a UMC colleague be told once that discipleship was something for conservative churches. This scenario shows part of the conundrum: a failure to admit we don’t know how to organize people, create healthy churches, and propel them into ministry in our communities.’

‘Living within the grain of our reality can feel like suffering. To not eliminate the potential of hardship can feel like suffering. Yet as Mary Harrington wrote in First Things, “Jesus could have made stone into bread, but he chose not to violate reality just to fill his belly. ­Instead, he made bread into his own body, to fill our hearts.”

We can live into our own reality because Christ did.’

‘The rosemary & basil’s leaves were green, fragrant, and perfectly fine. They simply couldn’t remain where they were under the new conditions. I stood there with a little pile of fragrant herbs on my cutting board (overthinking, of course) about how rarely we allow this to be true in our own lives. How often we stay in the waters of life longer than we should, waiting for something to go completely bad before we trust that it’s time to make a move.’

‘In the full sample, 40% of all attendees in the largest UMC congregations were not attending in person. Here’s a staggering figure to consider: Among the 100 United Methodist congregations with the largest membership, the median weekend attendance is slightly less than 600. There are a total of 19 United Methodist Churches that have an average weekly attendance of 1000+.’

This week at Free Range Priest:


☕️ ‘Cage Free Ministry’ Bite-sized ministry.

☕️ ‘4 tech tools I’m using in ministry right now’ by .

Substack Seminary is back in session!

The Q4 theme is Technology and Collaboration - and we are the case study! Join , Loren, and myself as we talk about the tech tools we use - and how we support each other in ministry.

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment:

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

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Ask Fr. Cathie: Am I ‘sneakily sacramenting’?

A subscriber wrote that she interned at a church, left on good terms, and stayed in the same small town. The new senior pastor isn’t great at visitations or bringing communion to shut-ins — and after one shut-in waited weeks with nothing but excuses, she asked our viewer instead. She brought communion. Did she overstep?

• First, a story. Back when I was a senior pastor, an associate who hadn’t gotten the job started showing up at our Saturday feeding program, opening it with prayer, wearing his collar — basically presenting himself as pastor of the congregation. I told him, ‘you have to stop doing this.’ He was being passive-aggressive and undermining my leadership, and calling him out was right. But Sneakily Sacramenting — this is not what you were doing.
  

• Respect the boundaries of someone’s ministry — which I think you absolutely were doing. And if there’s any way to talk directly to the other pastor, that’s always a good thing.
  

• The Cage Free Ministry reframe: We live in an era - and a church - where one pastor no longer has complete authority over members’ spiritual care. Today people read books, listen to podcasts, use apps, watch online - and keep in touch with their former pastors on social media. I think it’s ALL great!
  

• Think of it like your health. I’m in charge of my physical health and I might go see a chiropractor, a massage therapist, or my regular GP. Our spiritual lives should work the same way: we take charge of them and seek lots of wisdom and guidance.
  

• Charge for your work. If you know me, and if you follow me, you know I’m going to say this. Ministry is work — vocational and sacramental and spiritual. And also work. I personally don’t think Sunday worship should cost money, but weddings and funerals? Absolutely. Pastoral visits? YES. It’s uncomfortable. But that discomfort is teaching us something.

• Make it collaborative if you can. If the feeding-program guy had come to me first and asked if it was okay if I lead them in prayer, I would have said ‘absolutely’! Because then it would have been collaborative ministry. If it’s possible, you could approach this senior pastor and tell him you’re happy to provide pastoral care for your members if they request it, and work with him to provide it. He might be thrilled with that idea!
  

• Then the pay could go through the church: Offer hospital visits and have the church pay you - something like: ‘we’ll pay you $500 a month to do up to four visits.’ Less awkward than charging someone for the sacrament (or appearing to)! You get compensated for your ministry, the congregants get the pastoral care they need, and the senior pastor gets some help.
  
  

  ---

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

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This quarter in Substack Seminary, we’re talking about how technology can help us in ministry.

And to kick things off, I thought I’d start with something practical: four tech tools I’m using right now and finding helpful.

None of these are specifically “church software.” In fact, that’s part of what I like about them. They help me manage relationships, organize work, communicate, and create across the different contexts in which I work.

1. Dex

Dex is a personal CRM—or Customer Relationship Management system. CRMs are essentially databases designed to help organizations keep track of relationships: who someone is, when you last interacted, what you’ve talked about, and when you might want to follow up.

I found Dex after trying to find a CRM that could manage relationships from all the different contexts of my work.

What I like about Dex is that it isn’t tied to one particular business or organization. It is my CRM.

So I can keep track of relationships from church, nonprofits, podcasting, writing, consulting, and everything else—all in the same place. Dex can also track notes, reminders, important dates, and other information that helps you remember where you left off with someone.

I’m of the belief that when someone has a need, the person they reach out to isn’t necessarily the most qualified person they know. It’s often whoever is top of mind.

So, maintaining those relationships is important.

At minimum, I think pastors and ministry leaders could use something like this to help keep track of relationships and pastoral-care follow-ups.

2. Trello

Trello is a project and task-management tool built around boards, lists, and cards. You can use those to organize projects, track tasks, set deadlines, and see where different pieces of work stand.

There are many project-management tools available, so Trello may not be the right solution for you. I initially tried it because I had friends who used it and liked it.

I’m still exploring everything it can do.

But, again, one thing I like as someone doing multiple things is that I can create different boards corresponding to the different areas of my work: church, nonprofit, podcasting, writing, and so on.

Instead of trying to keep all those projects in my head, Trello gives me a place to put them.

3. Riverside

Riverside is an online recording and communication platform. Think of something like Zoom, but built much more intentionally around producing high-quality audio and video content.

I’ve used Riverside for several years in my podcasting work.

But I’m increasingly encouraging clients to think beyond podcast recording and consider the other ways tools like this can be used in ministry—webinars, interviews, video conversations, training materials, and on-demand content.

Especially as ministry becomes less geographically bound, the ability to create good digital content is increasingly part of ministry infrastructure.

4. ChatGPT

Finally, I don’t know how someone can avoid utilizing AI in modern ministry.

ChatGPT is an AI assistant that can help with things like brainstorming, writing, research, planning, working with files, and organizing information.

I know AI usage is still controversial in some ministry contexts. And I wouldn’t want someone to plug in a biblical text, have AI spit out a sermon, and then preach that sermon as their own.

But that’s very different from using AI as a tool.

Even this morning, as I’m writing this, I put some particulars into AI and had it help me flesh out an end-of-year giving plan, including weekly checklists.

I use it to brainstorm, organize ideas, challenge my thinking, refine writing, research questions, and help turn ideas into actionable plans.

AI doesn’t have to replace your thinking. It can help you think and work more effectively.

Use technology to support the work

None of these tools will make you a better pastor or ministry leader by themselves.

But they can help you remember people, organize your work, communicate more effectively, and spend less time trying to keep everything straight in your head.

And that’s part of what we’re exploring this quarter in Substack Seminary:

How can technology support the ministry we’re actually called to do—rather than simply becoming one more thing we have to manage?

And perhaps I should add this: as we’re all trying to figure out how to make our work sustainable, if you’re interested in any of these products, let me know. I can send you a referral link.

It doesn’t change my recommendation—I’m sharing these because they’re tools I actually use and find helpful—but if you’re going to sign up anyway, I certainly won’t turn down the referral.

Be sure to leave a comment below with your favorite technology tool in ministry.

Substack Seminary is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.

During Quarters, you’ll get blogs thematic blogs:

• Q1: Vision & Systematic Change

• Q2: Structure & Business Model

• Q3: Theology & Community

• Q4: Technology & Collaboration

Paid FRP subscribers join Conversations live on Thursdays at 3:30 Eastern (during Quarters), and get the replay + chat invitation on Mondays.


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It’s Friday, October 1. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: Discernment

‘As I sit on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what God will do for me, will I be faithful? Will I stay with him in the waiting? Most of all, will I keep returning when I wander away?’

‘Here we sit over 450 years from Luther’s 95-theses posted on a Church door. We do not have two Churches, Catholic and Reformed. We have over three hundred and that is just in North America. The number worldwide is 45,000. This has resulted in a denominational and non-denominational tower of Babel!’

‘Now, I want to belong somewhere. I want to find a home. I want to get involved, use my gifts, find and nurture relationships. Yet I am still curious about other traditions. I still want to explore where the Spirit of God is active, and deepen my appreciation of how the grace of God communicates.’

‘I’d never heard of the spiritual gift of battle before. (nor since) Eric was so delighted by it and wore the result like a badge of honor, often reminding me of it with a sly grin and glimmer in his eye. “I have the spiritual gift of battle! Remember?’

‘We can argue about the merits of kind lit-fic and whether it offers enough meat on the bone. But the reason the room erupted that night and a book club meeting almost ended in fisticuffs is because Patchett succeeded in her literary goal..’

This week at Free Range Priest:


☕️ ‘Cage Free Ministry’ Bite-sized ministry.

☕️ ‘What Might God Do Through You?’ Guest post from , reflecting on the Q3 theme of Theology and Community.

Substack Seminary Q4 starts Monday (through November 19!)

The theme is Technology and Collaboration - and we are the case study!

Pastor Sierra Ward, Loren Richmond Jr., Fr. Cathie Caimano … and you !- answer these questions in public, via blog and livestream (Thursdays at 3:30pm Eastern)

Week 1 - starts Oct 5: The tech your ministry is built on

Inventory what you’re using and how (your digital ‘stack’!). Favorite platform? One that gives you fits? One you wish you were using/could use? AI (yes/no/how)

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment: faith comes through practice….

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Substack Seminary Q4 starts Monday!

October 5th. The theme is Technology and Collaboration.

To wrap up Q3, we invited Substack Seminary enrollee to share her thoughts on Theology and Community. Thank you Thea!

What might God do through you?

God is relational. The truth that God exists in three distinct yet deliberately connected forms expresses how much God values relationships. This relationship expresses itself by moving right into the neighborhood, embodying a desire to know and be known so that creation might see and believe in greater things through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s gracious, redeeming and renewing life comes through authentic, deep and revealing relationships with real people also willing to know and be known.

Growing up in a chaotic and violent home, I prayed for the courage to believe the small voice whispering inside of me, “there has to be a better way.” As a young adult, I found my own manipulative, toxic and abusive relationship immediately inflicting bruises and scars to my body and brain, the voice inside began to scream “you deserve a better way.”

After 5 years of contorting myself to try and fit into who someone else needed me to be so that they could function with peace, I dreamed of escaping to live a new way in a land far far away. It was overseas, in a 70% atheist country of Czech Republic, with little faith in me, I met three women who embodied what I needed: friendship.

During our long walks to the train, through sleet and snow, and over three hour lunches across crumble filled tables, these women were willing to get to know, and let me get to know them, bruises, scars, hopes and dreams. It was through these relationships, each revealed they had a relationship with the God of everything something I never even dreamed was a possibility.

It was under the deep wide Czech sky I realized for the first time God was not distant and disgusted with me, but madly in love with and always present with protection and provision, even on my worst days.

This new connection led me to be able to return home, redeem my broken relationships with my family and learn to recognize and receive real love that shows up as honesty, kindness, mercy and self control. My relationship with God also empowered me to drop my salty nets and join the Jesus mission through pastoral ministry, trusting that God could and would work through even me, a wretched sinner still learning a new way to be.

In church planting, revitalization and daring to dream up something new, God has always shown up through people, willing to co-dream, believe and bring something out of nothing repeatedly.

Noticing this truth, led me to create , a space for women ready to connect with other dreamers, be encouraged by daring believers and held accountable to the goodness of God already at work in wondrous ways. She Believes Community embodies God’s choice to move right into the neighborhood, coming dangerously close to all our weakness, hunger, sickness and selfish ways, yet offering healing, hope and a brand new way instead of running away.

Jesus chose relationships, close proximity and living in the messy middle of human life in order to offer a new way, modeling what mercy looks like and promising that death doesn’t stop God’s will and way. By choosing connection, encouragement and accountability, fellow dreamers can stop wishing for a better reality, like those waiting for God’s kingdom to come, and learn to be the better way, bringing hope, change, comfort and redemption to their families, work place and neighborhoods resulting in a world that shines brighter, beyond isolation, envy and shame.

She Believes Community is a little-Christ, worried less about titles, given authority or the way power tends to work today.

Instead, we focus on being present with one another, boldly sharing our stories and trusting that God is here, now, working towards good in you today. She Believes Community lives out an embodied theology of God’s kingdom that moves us from despising ourselves in our booths, to determined followers of Jesus willing to share the influence this new way of living changes things.

We welcome you to come and see where else God will lead.

Find us at shebelievescommunity.com

Thea Curry-Fuson is the Founder and Executive Director of She Believes Community. Thea also provides content, connection and community to faithful leaders ready to dream and believe in a better reality via speaking, writing, coaching and consulting.

Visit theacurryfuson.com to connect.

Substack Seminary Q4: Technology and Collaboration
We are the case study.

It’s not just the theme - we’re doing it in real time!

, , … and you !- answer these questions in public, via blog and livestream (Thursdays at 3:30pm Eastern)

Week 1 - starts Oct 5: The tech your ministry is built on

Inventory what you’re using and how (your digital ‘stack’!). Favorite platform? One that gives you fits? One you wish you were using/could use? AI (yes/no/how)

Week 2 - starts Oct 12: Who is your network?

Map your collaboration - who you work with, how decisions get made, who supports your ministry and how you support others. Where is the accountability?

Week 3 - starting Oct 19: How do strangers become community members?

Picking up from Q3: Theology and Community - let’s audit our welcome sequence!
How do you use technology to get people’s attention, engage them with what you’re doing, and have them become part of the community?

Week 4 - Oct 26: How do we form people we never meet?

Christian faith and practice is about intimacy and community. How do we foster this in digital space?

Week 5 - Nov 2: What does a Cage Free Minister do all day?

Cathie, Sierra, and Loren will share from our daily work lives - how we use digital platforms in our ministry, who we rely on to help support us, how we support others in their ministry.

Week 6 - Nov 9: What did we build this Quarter?

Before-and-after - what we built this Quarter - what we’re going to take with us as we move forward.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

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Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

It’s Friday, September 25. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: It’s the little things

‘I have a simple working theory about these little tasks that pop up everyday. Here it is: when we accept them for what they are, we receive a natural means of grace for the day’.

‘It is beautiful to consider the person who actually prepared that meal for the Last Supper. Did they know they were preparing what may be the most famous, talked-about meal in all of human history?’

‘I realized that Bell’s progressive Christianity led people to an abstract alternate universe where the morality of the inner person was the true God. I was too messed up for that. I needed a Cross. I needed a high priest who could sympathize with me, not a God who offered comfort in the aisles of Trader Joe’s.’

‘This niggling feeling you have is a warning for all of us. Be careful what you believe, because so goes your life. I do think we understand this, but it’s hard to look at too closely.’

‘there’s very little indication that “believing the right things” topped anyone’s list of importance. The goal was more so retraining - reprogramming our base, animal instincts closer to the image of Christ.’

This week at Free Range Priest:

Small, repeated patterns for turning our life - and ministry - back towards God:


☕️ ‘It’s still ministry, it just tastes better.’ Cage Free Ministry = concepts for ‘bite-sized’ changes based on a new way of thinking about ministry and building a more agile system from the inside of church.

☕️ ‘What if you could train your soul?’ (at the Trexo gym for your soul)

Train for what?

• For that moment when everything falls apart … and we know we’re surrounded and held by love.

• For the moment everything comes together … and we know that our happiness rests in something even larger.

• For a life bound in peace, love, meaning, and JOY.

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment….

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I had a big epiphany this weekend

• I was running with a friend and the conversation turned to time and activity commitments. ‘One more thing on the calendar.’

• I think we often postpone spiritual practice the same way we postpone exercise: after New Year’s, next week, when life settles down, or when we feel more ready.

• Because it seems like a LOT. Because w…

Read more

This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practice.

This week we’re focused on the Jesus Prayer Practice…

Read more

It’s Friday, September 18. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: Transformation

This subject is far and away the most cited reason that visitors to our church mention as to why they are looking into Orthodoxy; after reading the Bible, they begin to realize that the Lord’s Supper is central to New Testament worship.

Pragmatism could be a great enlivening force for our age. It lets us again feel the awareness and the intelligence of everything, while also not losing our modernist reason and logical approach. It’s a wonderful prospect, as far as I’m concerned.’

So perhaps the question is not simply whether you have always called yourself a Christian. The better question is whether your life has ever been gathered up into Christ. Do you belong to Him? Has grace opened your mouth? Are you willing to stay near Him when doing so costs you something?

The believers in Antioch did not invent a label for themselves. Their neighbors watched their lives and found one.’

I wonder if I’ve come to a similar hinge moment in my life. I’m 55 years old; my oldest is about to graduate from college this spring and my youngest will become a teenager in just a few weeks.

Are there other things I need to be doing? Are there parts of my life I’ve given enough energy to, and are there new directions I should aim for?

Trigger points develop in your soul too. In fact, a trigger point in your body will indicate one in your soul too.

The technique to release a trigger point in the body is the same as to release one in the soul, albeit with far less violence:

Confront it.

Soothe it.

Accept it.

Again and again.

Love transforms even the hardest things…

☕️ On the Last Night of the World by .

This week at Free Range Priest:

Reimagining ministry as the institutional church transforms into the future…


☕️ ’s blog for Substack Seminary - ‘What do we lose when we lose the church building?’ - explores the gap between what we want church to be and what it often is: institutional maintenance.

☕️ The Trexo Story. Why I’m creating a gym for your soul.


☕️ Six-word mission statements are fun and informative ways to get at the heart of what your ministry is and why it matters. It’s also not so easy to do! It’s one of the fundamentals of Cage Free Ministry. I’d love to know yours! If you’re a subscriber (free or paid!), share yours with me here and I’ll send you some feedback:

Your 6-word mission

What have I missed?

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