Missional Church
Today Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor passed 300,000 page views! Readership has grown by 50,000 page views per year since I started this blog in December, 2006. Thanks for reading and commenting and sticking around for three years. You can help spread the word about this blog, which
Culture
The church of the future resides in an urban setting, consists of multiple minorities, and espouses progressive social values, according to two recently-released reports. While most church futurists have focused on church models (i.e., house churches vs. megachurches) in their predictions of the shape of church in the next
Resources
Looking for a good book on a specific ministry topic? Seminary and university course descriptions can be a good source for books on subjects you're searching for. Of course, I'm usually looking for books related to Christian ministry, but the most popular books on a subject
1 Corinthians
If you think you know everything you need to about crucifixion and the cross, think again. I'm preaching a 13-week series on The Apostles' Creed, and this past Sunday we arrived at the phrase about Jesus -- "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.
Church news
I'm back at The Cove this week leading conferences for the Billy Graham School of Evangelism. Yesterday we covered "Keys to Thriving in the Smaller Church." About 150 pastors, spouses, and church leaders attended the back-t0-back sessions and offered great stories from their own small churches.
Resources
I first saw it on Twitter -- "Big differences in what small churches believe vs. big churches" -- or something like that. Then, I saw it again a couple of days later. So I clicked the link and found myself staring at a Barna Group survey turned into
Christian history
I'm working on a new 13-week sermon series on The Apostles' Creed, starting this Sunday. Here's the schedule: Why Christians Need The Apostles' Creed -- Aug 23, 2009: 1. I Believe: An Introduction to The Apostles' Creed Aug 30, 2009: 2. In God
church as abbey
In the gift economy, information wants to be free. So, here are the latest freebies I've run across that are both free and excellent. The new Neue Quarterly will be out soon, and my article "Remembering Why You Said Yes" is in this issue. You can
Church news
Jeff Sharlet, contributing editor of Rolling Stone, is author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart of American Power. His book about the group best-known for sponsoring the National Prayer Breakfast has gained renewed interest since its hardback publication in 2008. With two of its members confessing to
Church news
This is Part 2 of my interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. This week, The Family is #5 in Amazon.com's sales rankings. If you'd like to catch up, Part 1 of the interview is
Christian history
This is part 1 of my exclusive interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family. Parts 2 and 3 will be posted Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: Part 1 by Chuck Warnock Jeff Sharlet is author of The Family: The Secret
Community
We do a community VBS with 4 other small churches in our community -- 2 Baptist, 2 United Methodist, and 1 Presbyterian. This year we're using Group Publishing's Crocodile Dock. Here are some photos of the week so far: