This time around our search for a church was supposed to be relatively easy because we decided to only consider a small geographical areavisit Mainline Protestant congregations (and those largely aligned with Mainline theology) Our relatively modest attempt has grown a few times: Plan A: 10 congregationsPlan B: 13 congregationsPlan C: 15 congregations (still far smaller than our last search that included 36 congregations!) Plan C When we set out for our original search for Read More …
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Learning from Church Spies (#1180)
Terry Mattingly writes the nationally syndicated “On Religion” column for the Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., and is director of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. His latest article, "Lessons Learned from Church Spies," features the story of one spy's experience. The church spy, Chuck Lawless (evangelism professor and the graduate dean at Southeastern Baptist Theological Read More …
My Visit to Next Level Church (#0891)
Next Level Church in Fort Myers, FL was featured in Outreach Magazine as one of the top ten fastest growing churches in America (for more on the article that sparked my curiosity, read this post). Since this was the only congregation within a reasonable driving distance to make the list, it was an easy decision to visit. This past Saturday, accompanied by a seminarian, I attended the 4:30 p.m. service: the first of five identical weekend services (Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and 6:15 Read More …