The seal of the confessional has protected pastoral confidences for centuries. Today’s digital ministry requires translating these ancient principles into new contexts. When AI tools process prayer requests, sermon illustrations involve personal stories, and digital platforms store sensitive information, maintaining confidentiality becomes both more complex and more critical. Here’s how to steward information faithfully in […]
Ministry doesn’t pause between Sundays. The weekly rhythm of pastoral work—administration, communication, visitation, preparation, and coordination—can either energize or exhaust. AI tools, thoughtfully integrated into weekly workflows, can reduce administrative burden while enhancing ministry effectiveness. Here’s a practical guide to using AI throughout your ministry week, creating sustainable rhythms that serve both congregation and pastor. […]
Knowing how to communicate with AI—what technologists call “prompt engineering”—is becoming an essential ministry skill. Just as learning to use email or social media expanded our ministry reach, mastering AI prompting multiplies our effectiveness. The good news is that this isn’t about complex programming but about clear communication, something pastors already excel at. Think of […]
Over the past few days, I have been working on putting together a makeshift studio that I can use to record videos for the congregation and community. It will also be helpful for the ever-increasing number of video conference calls these days. I want to share with you a bit of the process, in case […]
One of the jewels of the Shawnee County Parks and Recreation system is the Lake Shawnee Trail. Nearly every time I go for a run, I use it in some way. At times, a short loop around Tinman Circle and others around the entire lake with an extension down Berryton Road to reach my target […]
Last month, I undertook the task of upgrading the wireless network at Berryton United Church. I am a bit of a tech geek at heart and enjoy things working well. I am grateful that there was an existing wireless network, though one of the challenges was that it was a different network in the sanctuary […]
It has been 649 days since my last blog post. Much has changed since then. Our children are 3 and 2, respectively. I switched from WordPress.com to a WordPress installation, thereby starting over on traffic and links. I am beginning my third year as the pastor appointed to serve First UMC of El Dorado, KS. […]
I am part of a team from First United Methodist Church in El Dorado, KS attending Leadership Institute 2012. I collected Twitter updates tagged with #li2012. Then I used Wordle to create word clouds with the text of updates during the conference. I edited out Twitter usernames, RT and #li2012 to get a better view of the conversation. […]
One month from today, I will begin serving as pastor at First United Methodist Church in El Dorado. Last week, I had the opportunity to spend time with some of the key leaders and staff from the church. I shared a document with everyone that I met outlined some of my personal priorities as well […]
As a follow up to the The #gc2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project, I completed a similar project for the Kansas West Annual Conference. I collected Twitter updates from May 22 to 27 that were tagged with #kwc12, #ksw12 and #kswumc. Then I used Wordle to create a word cloud with the text of all the updates for […]
At the end of the #dreamUMC chat last night, I volunteered to collect hashtags for United Methodist conferences this year. I hope you will find it helpful to stay connected across the denomination. Will you please help me complete this list? Please send me an @reply on Twitter @andrewconard or leave a comment on this […]
The #GC2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project Twitter was a powerful tool of engagement during General Conference 2012. I thought it would be fascinating to archive and analyze the updates tagged with #gc2012. On Tuesday morning, I set up an Archive of the #gc2012 hashtag through a HootSuite Pro account. Every day I downloaded the data […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 