With Dr. Bruce Hartung The conversation about pastoral transitions continues.  To follow this conversation, please see the July and August columns. Following are six readers’ comments. Separation does result in experiencing the stages of grief. … [and] after 1.5 years…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Reader: Thanks for “cracking open the door” on congregational response of both hurt and loss to pastoral departure in your “Pressure Points” column. [For the July column, visit http://classic.lcms.org/?18896.] …. Especially of concern to those of…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung While the two questions for this month’s column may not at first seem related, I have included them because they both illustrate that congregations have specific work to do after “losing” their pastors. Q: Our former…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Thanks to alert readers for pointing out that a Web address for Internet accountability software in May’s column actually led to the online opportunity to purchase watches. I apologize. The correct site address is www.x3watch.com. This…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Thanks to several readers who pointed out that Patrick is the first name of Patrick Carnes — the lead author of In the Shadows of the Net: Breaking Free from Compulsive Online Sexual Behavior — not…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Q: How much do you think “personality” plays into conflicts between people? Here is why I ask. We are having a very serious tiff in our congregation that involves [two] … members of our staff. They…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung I thought two columns on social media would be enough, at least for the short-term.  (See www.lcms.org/?18126 and www.lcms.org/?18269.)  The readers of this column had different thoughts, though.  Responses abound.  Obviously, this is an important concern. …

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Last month’s column on social media brought a number of interesting and thoughtful comments. For that column, go to www.lcms.org/?18126.  Here are several of those comments that I think are particularly reflective and potentially helpful. Reader:…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Q: I’m a not-quite 30, pretty tech-savvy pastor who makes abundant use of social media sites like Facebook.  I’ve been troubled by recent lack of common-sense etiquette I’m seeing from fellow professional church workers. After offering…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung The last two “Pressure Points” columns (see www.lcms.org/?17579 and www.lcms.org/?17805) focused on various congregational responses to economic pressure. Q: [What is] the real problem? Your article discusses issues, but the newsletter (Reporter) goes to church workers.…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Last month’s column addressing a reader’s question about what the Synod is “doing to help teachers who have dedicated many years to Lutheran education and now find themselves unemployed” has opened something of a floodgate of…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Q: Schools are terminating long-standing teachers as a way to balance their budgets.  In addition, teachers are being encouraged to obtain master’s degrees, although teachers with advanced degrees risk being too high on the pay scale.…

Responses to the June “Pressure Points” column have been energetic and clearly not of one mind or heart. That column addressed what its questioner — a first-time delegate to a Synod convention — described as “communications I get that are negative, attacking…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Q:  I am a first-time lay delegate to our [Synod] convention … this July in Houston.  My pastor suggested I write to you after I spoke to him about this.  I am shocked and distressed at…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung Thanks to Pressure Points readers who responded in such thoughtful and helpful ways to the January column concerning retired pastors and, in the words of the retiree who addressed the topic for that column, “the role…

With Dr. Bruce Hartung This month’s “Pressure Points” has to do with comments (in bold) of a veteran pastor, along with my “answer” to him, as follows: “Over my many years as an LCMS pastor, I’ve been involved with the…