It's still ministry, it just tastes better
How to rediscover ministry JOY and build your own Cage Free Ministry
The church is stuck.
Stuck in 20th century organization and administration.
Stuck in institutional decline and precariousness.
Stuck in endless commissions and committees to understand how we are stuck.
Stuck in having SO much Good News to share in a world that so desperately needs it - constrained by a model of church that is barely compelling anymore.
Cage Free Ministry is about YOU getting 'unstuck’.
It’s a Newsletter that’s part of Free Range Priest.
It’s a monthly coaching email with practical ideas and wildly optimistic theories about how the Holy Spirit is transforming the practice of ministry.
It’s a doorway to courses, consulting, and every way I can think of to support you as you develop your ministry to bring church to people.
When I tell people I’m a Free Range Priest, they say:
‘like the chicken?’
and I say: YES.
Because it’s still ministry, it just tastes better.
It’s Cage Free.
Become a free subscriber to Free Range Priest, and you’ll be on your way to becoming Cage Free:
Monthly Cage Free Ministry coaching emails will focus on the reimagination ‘recipe’:
Reimagining the System
How we organize ourselves as the church.
Vision: Agile, Networked, Technology-based, focused on Christian Practice and small Worshiping Communities.
Reimagining Community
What we do and believe as the church.
Vision: Welcome, Belonging, Formation, and Practice.
Reimagining the Minister
How lay and ordained leaders serve God and the church together.
Vision:
Task-based contracts
Not being ‘in charge’ of congregations
Wondering where God is in the midst of all this
Focusing on the ‘root’ over the ‘fruit’ of Christian faith
…and giving up trying to save the institution!
Cage Free Ministry is for you if:
You are an ordained or lay Christian minister, whose calling to connect others to their life with God is stronger than the fear of what we need to change to get there.
You serve in a traditional congregational setting - and you want to figure out how to do that more sustainably in today’s context (and into the future of church).
You’re an entrepreneurial ministry - or want to be! - creating a ‘faith practice’ from speaking, writing, coaching, consulting, spiritual direction, or creating faith communities in new ways.
You are brand new to ministry and don’t feel prepared for how the church is changing.
You have tons of experience and want to figure out how to translate it into today’s context.
It’s for those who are ready to stop trying to save the institution at the expense of sharing the Gospel.
You don’t have to do this alone
Free Range Priest is an umbrella ministry, where you’ll get monthly blogs. When you subscribe, you’ll also be subscribed to Cage Free Ministry, and three other Newsletters (unless you want to opt out of any of them - at any time).
* You need to be subscribed to Free Range Priest to update your preferences
Join other Cage Free Ministers - and ‘weirdo pastors’! - at Substack Seminary, where we’re building the Future of Church - together.
Join the Trexo: a gym for your soul - and learn to practice the faith like the first Christians did.
Get Weekly Good Stuff - a round up of writing on Substack this week that’s moving, entertaining, inspiring, and thought-provoking…
At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.
Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Get:
Christian Practice. Ministry Community. Small, practical changes. Good Stuff.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.