Two Questions: Douglas Powe, Jr.

Posted by Liz Perraud at

Douglas Powe

Douglas Powe, Jr.
Director, Lewis Center for Church Leadership
James C. Logan Professor of Evangelism, Wesley Theological Seminary

 

 

 


In each edition of IG Mix, we ask a guest writer two questions about serving in ministry.

What keeps you up at night?

Trying to help congregations bridge the gap between the hunger younger generations have for deepening their spirituality and the role churches can play in doing so keeps me up at night.  The lack of intergenerational presence in many congregations is troubling given the fact that even some nones see themselves as spiritual.  The challenge is they do not see the church as the place of exploring and cultivating this spirituality.  If congregations are going to become more intergenerational, then closing the gap for those seeking (what they cannot name often themselves)  by creating spaces for genuine dialogue is essential.  Creating such spaces means establishing trust, openness and a willingness to listen on both sides. 

What gets you up in the morning?

I wake up with the hope we find in Isaiah 43:19 that God is doing a new thing.  I see the new thing happening in congregations who are doing intergenerational ministry.  I see the new thing happening in congregations who are finding ways to hold on to important traditions and to take risk that bring generations together in outside-of-the-box thinking.  This hope propels me to keep sharing that intergenerational ministry should not be the exception, but should be the norm.

Frederick Douglas Powe, Jr. is the Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and the James C. Logan Professor of Evangelism at Wesley Theological Seminary. Dr. Powe is an ordained elder in the Baltimore/Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  His newest book, The Adept Church: Navigating Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was the number one newly released church growth book just a month after being released.     


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