Culture
Phyllis Tickle's newest book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why, arrived yesterday. At 172 pages, this small but elegant volume (aren't all Tickle's books elegant?) both informs and disappoints. Tickle takes on the daunting task of reviewing the major turning points
bless the world
"You feed them." Those were the words of Jesus to the disciples. A big hungry crowd needed to be fed, and the disciples had come to Jesus for a solution. Jesus challenged the disciples to feed the crowd themselves, but they protested they were not able to. Now,
church as abbey
Thumbing through an analysis of our community today, it hit me. There are too many churches in our area. Within a 5-mile radius of our church, there are 25 other churches. And, this doesn't even count churches without telephones, which include at least 8 more that I know
Trends
"It is no longer the time of the heroic leader -- the leader who walks in and takes up all the space in the room. The job of today's leaders is to create space for other people -- a space in which people can generate new and
Congregation
Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion reports that less than 11% of the US public considers themselves unaffiliated with any church or other religious group. That figure is about 4% -- or 10-million people -- less than previously thought. And, the unaffiliated hardly ever attend church --
bless the world
Most churches participate in some kind of food closet, which is primarily a way to supply emergency food to those who need it. But, what if everyone needed food? What if the global food supply system collapses or goes into deep distress? How do churches help then? Chatham House, a
Community
I started to let this go. First, because you can't comment on everything you read in blogs; and, secondly, I could not believe I was actually reading it. But, I can't let this go. Here's why: Small churches deserve better than Bill Easum'
church as abbey
We're in a transition in our church some 4 years after my arrival as pastor. Our congregation is aging, and younger families have left the church, primarily because we didn't offer the programs that larger churches in our area offer for children and youth. We recognize
bless the world
Tom Sine's latest book, The New Conspirators, celebrates the increasing diversity in the church. Sine's book continues the theme of his classic book, The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, published in 1981. Sine was a 'red-letter Christian' before the official group existed, and in this hopeful
church as abbey
Some in my Southern Baptist denomination are calling for more stringent church discipline. That's mostly because we can't find about half of our 16-million members. Obviously, some of our folks don't take church membership very seriously. The logical thing to do to solve that
Culture
Alltop.com is a new blog aggregator from the minds of the same folks who brought you truemors.com. Alltops aggregates a huge amount of stuff in a variety of categories, church.alltop.com being one of them. I am happy to report that we made the cut, or the
Congregation
Today I bought pollster John Zogby's new book, The Way We'll Be, subtitled, The Zogby Report on The Transformation of the American Dream. Called a "super pollster" because he uses innovative methodologies in his polling work, Zogby sees a very different future for the