While I read many new books and share ratings for the best of them with you once a month, I most frequently share quotes of interest via X, the platform previously known asTwitter. Today, I'm sharing 10 quotes from recently published books as an invitation to theological conversation about one or more of the topics they explore. Read More …
Reformation
6 Decades of Decline in the United Church of Christ (#1761)
The United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed in 1957 as the result of the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. In 1957 the UCC included 8,283 congregations with 2,193,593 members. Every decade since the formation has featured a decline in both total congregations and total members (statistical data sourced from the Fall 2018 edition of United Church of Christ: A Statistical Profile) Declining Read More …
Life After Seminary (#1100)
For generations, seminaries were primarily designed to train people for pastoral ministry. Today, less than half of all graduates of the typical seminary degree for pastors (master of divinity) plan to engage in full-time church ministry. According to the Association of Theological Schools the shift has taken place in just a few decades. At that time, over 90% of students planned to enter full-time church ministry. The percentage has declined ever since, reaching 52% by Read More …
Episcopalian Praise for the UCC (#0809)
John Shelby Spong served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. In retirement, he has been a prolific writer and speaker. His latest essay, "A Salute to the United Church of Christ," portrays the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a denomination with the potential to "inspire, bring about and participate in the necessary reformation required to break the Christian faith out of its dying patterns." While Spong has had Read More …
Technology and the Church: Crisis or Opportunity (#0373)
Lisa Miller is the author of Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (2010), and formerly served as religion editor at Newsweek. She recently wrote "My Take: how technology could bring down the church," for CNN's Belief Blog. In this article Miller argues that the printing press was the key technology that enabled the success of the Protestant Reformation and the current move away from print editions of the Bible to digital ones like YouVersion may enable Read More …