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Continue reading →: Are You Fasting or Feasting?Fasting for Lent Some years, I’ve made a point of giving up something for Lent. Like fasting from chocolate. Or driving alone in silence instead of listening to music or a podcast. Such small, personal sacrifices are so small that I hesitate to use the word sacrifice. Besides, they’re for…
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Continue reading →: Learning Our Way into the FutureOne of my current community-building projects is updating our church photo directory: A church photo directory is community-building that’s both fun and functional. At least that’s what I thought when I first suggested it last year. But in a world that seems increasingly polarized, fractured, and frightening, it also seems…
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Continue reading →: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: We’ve Got MailLast Saturday morning, I was surprised to receive an email from Deacon Richard Chau, who is the Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations officer for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver. I’d never met him, but he had learned that our church had planned our Sunday morning worship around the Week of…
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Continue reading →: 2025 Year in ReviewHow much attention do you pay to your church stats? Do you track worship attendance? New visitors? Giving trends? Budget spending? As a pastor of a mid-sized church, I made it a point to notice visitors and greet them. I learned later from one young couple that one of the…
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Continue reading →: From Gratitude to PraiseThanksgiving Day in both Canada and the United States has come and gone, but as we all know, giving thanks is not about a single day or weekend. Churches around the world give thanks every Sunday as part of their regular worship. Some of us give thanks every day when…
When You Work for the Church
Hello,
I’m April Yamasaki
Welcome to When You Work for the Church. I’ve been a church volunteer and a full-time pastor. I’ve led small groups and served on denominational committees. When I resigned from pastoral ministry to focus on my writing, I knew that I wanted to be—needed to be—grounded in a local congregation. I love the church!
But I also know that churches and church organizations have not always lived up to their calling, have brought harm instead of healing. So I started this website to share resources for doing ministry better, and pray that together we might serve more faithfully and effectively.
For a healthy rhythm of work and rest, I’d love to send you my ebook.
When You Work for the Church 