Congregation
A pastor friend of mine dropped by yesterday to talk about communion. He increased the observance of communion at his church from 4-times a year to 6-times a year. At our church, we have communion on the first Sunday of each month -- 12-times a year -- plus on special
bless the world
Yesterday I posted Ten Marks of the Church-as-Abbey. One of the characteristics, economics, plays an important role because the ancient celtic Christian abbeys were self-supporting while providing economic transformation to the community. Today, tall skinny kiwi posts about the fourth sector -- groups that want to change the world while
Community
Models for how we should do church are not in short supply. Seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, emerging, missional, traditional, liturgical, ancient-future, and the like all have their merits. I am really interested in the church-as-abbey concept myself. I have read extensively about the early Celtic Christian church and find it intriguing and
bless the world
Today history was made in Chatham, Virginia. At 3 PM, African-Americans and white Americans gathered to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. together. Not many people will notice this historic event because only about 75 of us were present. But it happened, and as I
church as abbey
Our house sits on Main Street across from the Carter's #3 store. I have found Carter's #2 (it's in Gretna), but I'm still looking for Carter's #1. But, back to my point. Next to Carter's #3, reposes Scott&
Congregation
Out of Ur, Christianity Today's blog, features Dr. Brad Wright and his analysis of the Willow Creek survey and REVEAL. Of course, this blog had that info on my January 8 post, Willow Creek Study Flawed Says Prof. If Out of Ur picked it up here, it'
Lectionary Yr A
Tell The Story, Part 2 Matthew 3:13-17, NRSV 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 3:
bless the world
Does your church have special plans to observe Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 21, 2008? I wish I could tell you our church has observed MLK Day before, but that's not true. Like most white congregations, we just didn't mention it. We did close
Congregation
Over at Les Puryear's blog, he posted some interesting stats on the number of small churches across denominations. Noting that more than 2/3s of all Episcopal, Lutheran, and Nazarene churches have about 100-or-fewer members, Les asked LifeWay to run the numbers on Southern Baptists. Here's
Congregation
Bradley Wright, associate professor in the sociology of Christianity at the University of Connecticut, has the best analysis of the Willow Creek study I have seen. Wright comes at it from a social science viewpoint, which is appropriate. He commends Willow Creek for tackling the survey, but critiques their methodology
church as abbey
A long time ago, before Al Gore invented the internet, small churches were thought to be, well, small. Which really meant that small churches suffered from -- * Lack of resources. * Limited reach. * Low quality. * Little impact. * Less appeal. The Five Deadly L's, I call them. But no more.
Congregation
Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, describes the effect of more choice on consumer sales. Anderson explains it this way - The Long Tail In other words, the more stuff there is to choose from, the more choices we make. Take books, for instance. The typical Borders retail