Community
This article first appeared in Outreach magazine in July/August 2009, in my Small Church, Big Idea column. A New Reputation For An Old Church by Chuck Warnock When the doorbell rang at Cradock Baptist Church not long ago, the staff buzzed in a man who announced, "I'
Global issues
Tom Friedman, author of The World is Flat and New York Times columnist, is big on China, but he's not the only one. The 21st century is being called the "China Century" as China's economy is predicted to grow to three times the size
Culture
Okay, I'm going for the cheap search hits with the title, but bear with me because I do have a serious point. Google launched the Nexus One phone today, to no surprise and with little flash. One reviewer said the presentation was "underwhelming." Of course, that&
church as abbey
The church growth movement helped foster the idea of the pastor as the authoritative leader of the congregation. I know because I studied church growth at its height at Fuller Seminary. The premise of the theory of "pastoral authority" was that churches grew faster and larger when the
Lectionary Yr C
Favor With God and Man Luke 2:41-52 41Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy
Creativity
E-books are popping up everywhere suddenly. As I write this, mediabistro.com's e-book summit is livestreaming on my office PC. The hot nearly-new gift for Christmas this year is an e-reader -- a Kindle, a Nook, a Sony Reader, or one of the others coming soon. The entire
Culture
A new study reveals a specific link between luxury goods and selfishness. Two experiments showed that "exposure to luxury led people to think more about themselves than others," according to a Harvard Business School paper. Professor Roy Y. J. Chua and Xi Zou conducted two experiments in which
Congregation
There is an idea floating around out there that small churches are inherently resistant to change. This is often called a "small church mentality" because the conventional wisdom is that every church will be growing numerically if it has the right attitude. However, small churches should not be
Community
Churches can care for their communities by providing resources to encourage and strengthen marriage. The Brookings Institute's Ron Haskins writes -- "Higher marriage rates among the poor would benefit poor adults themselves, their children, and the nation." Haskins believes that churches and other non-profits should encourage
Culture
Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed how silly Christian book titles have become? Zondervan is in a dust-up with Soong-Chan Rah and other Asian-American church leaders over the book Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership. Dr. Rah's beef,
bless the world
More world citizens and more Americans go hungry each day than ever before in the history of the world. One billion people out of the 6-billion who inhabit the earth, do not have enough to eat. Almost 17% of the world's population -- 1-in-6 people in other words
Congregation
Lillian Daniel sparks an interesting conversation about clergy self-care in her article at Out of Ur, What Clergy Do Not Need. Lillian's point is that the "self-care talk" given at ordinations has become a joke, a cliche. What we as clergy need, she asserts, are deep