There’s a lot of talk in ministry circles about crisis, trauma, burnout, and decline.
All of it matters.
All of it needs attention.
But if we’re not careful, we forget something essential:
Joy is part of the Gospel, too.
Not surface-level cheeriness.
Not toxic positivity.
But deep, rooted, radiant joy—the kind that bubbles up from aliveness, from connection, from Spirit.
That’s the kind of joy my dear singing teacher, Dr. David Falk, used to call me back to.
He taught from a simple but profound place:
“Always ask—‘What’s News?’”
Not “What’s broken?”
Not “What’s wrong with you?”
But—“What’s good? What’s changing? What’s unfolding in you today?”
It sounds simple, but it shifts everything.
Because in a world trained to scan for danger, a ministry that scans for joy becomes revolutionary.
When we lead from “What’s News?”—
We open space for the new thing God is doing.
We remind people that they are growing, even when it feels slow.
We tune our attention to the moments of music, beauty, clarity, kindness, courage, and care.
We become ministers of hopeful noticing.
It’s not naive.
It’s deeply spiritual.
Joy doesn’t erase the pain.
It balances it.
It keeps us from turning into walking triage units.
It reconnects us to the sacred reason we’re here in the first place.
After all—Jesus didn’t just come to bind up the brokenhearted.
He came to turn water into wine.
To gather friends around tables.
To marvel at lilies.
To laugh, to rest, to celebrate the return of the lost.
He came that our joy might be full. (John 15:11)
What would change if we asked that of ourselves and each other, every day?
- What’s news in your soul?
- What’s rising?
- What beauty are you holding?
- What tiny victory are you quietly proud of?
As leaders, we must learn to preach the joy as surely as we preach the need.
To name resilience, not just pain.
To call forward what is flourishing, not only what is fragile.
Joy is contagious.
It’s a resistance practice.
And it’s a holy one.
So today, before you brace for the next fire,
Pause.
Look someone in the eye.
And say:
“Tell me what’s news.”
Then hold it like sacrament.