Creativity
Being a pastor is sometimes like herding pigs. I'm not going for the cheap joke here, although I'm sure there is one. I'm serious. Apparently pig farmers have serious difficulty getting pigs to go into the barn in an orderly fashion. Farmers can use
Creativity
I mentioned this yesterday on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and some other places, but if you don't get those feeds, here's an early Christmas present for you: YouVersion, an online multi-edition Bible, is now available for Blackberries. The iPhone version has been out for a while, but
Creativity
I just read that small churches make up 90% of the churches in America, and most of those have 75-100 in attendance. Of course, I already knew that, but it helps to read it somewhere besides my own blog. Which brings me to a perennial topic -- looking for another
bless the world
One of the things I learned while I attended seminary in Texas was that dominoes are for more than lining up and knocking down. Be that as it may, we're headed for an ecclesiastical domino effect brought to us by an economy in recession -- a recession, we
Creativity
Once Carl Sandburg remarked about a preacher: "I won't take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth." I wonder if Sandburg would give us preachers a break if we also worked with pens, and not just with our mouths. Since Sandburg
bless the world
I'm playing around here and this is the rough draft of 101 Outreach Ideas for Small Churches. Any others you want to add? I'd love to hear any stories you have about any outreach ideas you've used. I'm working on a book,
Community
This week I was asked to pray at the swearing in of our new county treasurer, who is also a member of our church. I wrote Prayer for A New County Treasurer for that occasion. I also wrote Prayer for the Opening of Court a couple of years ago. Both
Creativity
As 2008 draws to a close, we turn our thoughts to the prestigious "8-Track of the Year" awards. For those too young to remember, 8-track tapes were all the rage back in the 1970s. A big, clunky endless loop tape was the hottest technology available. You could actually
Creativity
I got tired of lugging my laptop to meetings, so I got a Blackberry before I went to NOC2008 in San Diego. Of course, when I got there, everyone I saw had an iPhone or a BB, so I'm not exactly on the cutting edge here, but I&
Congregation
I'm reading Seth Godin's new book, Tribes. Godin packs his small book with pithy observations about the nature of "tribes" and the qualities tribes are looking for in leaders. Although he doesn't explicitly say this, it occurred to me that a small
bless the world
Here's the powerpoint I used in my NOC2008 workshop, Small Churches Make Good Neighbors. I'm using the abbey church model, and discussing the 10 aspects of the ancient celtic abbeys applied to churches today. The ppt is on SlideShare, so you can view and download the
church as abbey
A friend of mine sent me Seth Godin's new book, Tribes . All Godin's books pack lots of new thinking between their small covers. I'll post more about it after I'm finished, but already I've run across these gems: * "A