Author: Todd McDonald

I really like watching good musicians play live, especially bass guitarists. When I played bass trombone in a swing band, the rhythm section held the band together. The drummer and the bass kept the groove alive and kept all of us players together. When I see a really cool bassist slap out a funk rhythm, I am filled with joy. Rhythms are the stuff of life, stuff we dance to, provides stability for all the joy going on over top of it. Soloists are able to swoop and rob time only because of the steady rhythm of the rhythm section that holds everything together.

There is a rhythm to the life of any group too, including a Clergy Peer Learning Group’s life…

Shining Waters is inviting all ministers to consider forming a Clergy Peer Learning Group. A group can meet in person or it can meet by Zoom. A group can include ministers from other denominations. The common denominator for a peer learning group is 7-8 committed colleagues who want to explore new learning in Deep Spirituality or Bold Discipleship or Daring Justice.

But your group is not just about new learning. It is also about support.

I had a conversation with the Rev. Orville James last week. He told me about…

Hello friends!

Shining Waters has started a Clergy Peer Learning Group program with the hopes that ministers can gather together and support each other through this strange, random and wonderful time to be in ministry. What can we learn about leadership, together? In what ways can we have each other’s back in a safe place to reflect on ministry with a learning focus connected to Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, Daring Justice? Whether by Zoom and in person, it is critical to…

Hello friends!

After over two years of life with COVID, I’ve heard many people describe the changes in the contours of their congregational life.  When I think about those United Church folk for whom attending church is their primary way to be in community and experience God, online worship, separation from each other, and fear of catching a virus, has left some feeling loss, deep loss.  As we learned many years ago…

Welcome friends!

For the next while I would like to talk about clergy peer learning groups, something we are currently promoting within Shining Waters. This is my first time trying to write a blog so bear with me! I began ministry in Newfoundland. There were so many good relationships to be had with the people of that four-point pastoral charge. But I remember being…