The youngest Baby Boomers reached retirement age in 2011. 10,000 Boomers a day will hit that milestone every day through the year 2030. While not all will retire upon turning 65, it is reasonable to expect a good number will retire at some point not long thereafter. Clergy Retirement Boom Charles M. Austin's cover story in the latest edition of "The Lutheran," illustrates the significance of Boomer retirements in the life of the Lutheran church. More specifically, he cites Read More …
Lutheran
Popular Presbyterians (#1462)
Last week I happened upon a chart showing how common certain words related to mainline Protestantism appeared in the New York Times. I was immediately intrigued to see that Presbyterians have received better coverage than others since 1860 and that the use of the term peaked in 1937, appearing that year in 2,149 articles. After determining how to create my own charts, I made one reflecting the names of the four traditions with which I have had formal affiliation: Christian Church Read More …
Review of Pastrix (#1219)
Meet the Author Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, a Lutheran (ELCA) mission church in Denver, CO. Bolz-Weber is known for her non-traditional appearance and approach. She is the author of two books: Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television (2008) and Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint (2013). Prior to attending seminary and entering the ministry, Read More …
High School Ministry – Defining Success (#0648)
Lutheran (ELCA) pastor Rich Melheim is the founder and chief creative officer of Faith Inkubators, which he describes as "a Christian education systems design think tank and resource provider dedicated to incubating faith every night in every home." In the February 22, 2012 edition of the Christian Century, he answered several questions regarding faith formation as a family matter, including one about high school youth ministry. Q: How do you define a successful church program for Read More …
A New Day in the PCUSA (#0516)
The Presbyterian Church (USA) or PCUSA has been in the news more this past week than any time this year. The denomination officially amended its constitution earlier this year to allow gays and lesbians to serve as ministers and lay leaders. Last Saturday, the Rev. Scott Anderson was ordained as the denomination's first openly gay pastor. He told CNN: "It's an exciting time for me personally to be the first openly gay person ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Read More …
Rethinking Religious Rules (#0476)
This morning I am preaching at Naples United Church of Christ in Naples, FL. You can read the full text of my sermon, Rethinking Religious Rules, here. For more information about the books referenced visit my review of One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow and my thoughts on The Jesus Creed, which was a part of my Who is Jesus? series. So What? In his recent book, One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow, Scot McKnight writes these words: “Every religious culture Read More …
The End of the Pastor’s Study (#0402)
Joe Smith is the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Lakewood, WA. Recently, he blogged about how overrated office space is for pastors. Then, a few days later, he continued the discussion of the topic with a guest post by Kirk Jeffery, an ordained United Methodist pastor who currently serves as a church growth consultant. Together these two posts effectively argue that while the pastor's study served a significant purpose in an earlier era it has outlived Read More …
Imagine an Institution (#0386)
A short illustration, posted on April 20 by Jerry Bowyer on the forbes.com blog, was printed in the May 31, 2011 edition of the Christian Century: Imagine an institution that requires its leaders to attend not only college, but graduate school. Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no Read More …