Alan Rudnick, pastor of First Baptist Church (Ballston Spa, NY), recently wrote about constructing a theology for announcements in worship. He suggests that announcements belong in worship if they "serve a greater purpose: to connect people into greater opportunities of Christ-like community life." Additionally, Rudnick encourages people to reconsider announcements as being made in non-verbal forms, delivered by a solid communicator (ideally the same Read More …
Review of Toxic Charity (#0911)
Meet the Author Robert D. Lupton is founder and president of Focused Community Strategies (FCS) Urban Ministries. In that role, he writes "Urban Perspectives," monthly reflections about life and faith in the city. Additionally, Lupton is the author of several books, including Renewing the City: Reflections on Community Development and Urban Renewal (2005), Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor (2007), Toxic Charity: How Read More …
Don’t Be Like Olive Garden (#0910)
Scott McClellan, writer/editor at Echohub and author of the forthcoming book Tell Me a Story (2013), recently challenged church leaders to live into their roles by doing more than simply providing the religious goods and services requested by the majority of their parishioners (consumers). His blog post was inspired by a story about Olive Garden that suggested the casual dining chain's leadership wants to but has been unable to improve their offerings because any Read More …
Why Do You? (#0909)
Elizabeth Hagan, pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church (Reston, VA), recently asked two questions every follower of Jesus should seek to answer: Why do you pray? Why do you read the Bible? So What? People often presume Christians do certain things. While those lists vary, praying and reading the Bible are typically included. For those committed to following the way of Jesus, it is essential not simply to engage in these activities but to understand why one is doing Read More …
Learning from the Unaffiliated (#0908)
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly recently featured Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion (my review), about the religious implications of the rise of the religiously unaffiliated. While there is diversity within the growing group of religiously unaffiliated, Butler Bass claims, " . . . an awful lot of people who are in the unaffiliated categories - people who are spiritual but not religious or people who consider themselves to maybe to be Read More …
Review of Effective Staffing for Vital Churches (#0907)
Meet the Authors Since 1987, Bill Easum (pictured in the lighter colored shirt) and Bill Tenny-Brittian (pictured in the darker colored shirt) have directly served more than 1,000 churches, trained hundreds of thousands of church leaders, and created a wide variety of resources. While serving as a pastor, Easum founded 21st Century Strategies in 1987. In 2000, Easum merged his organization with Tom Bandy’s Thriving Church ministry to create Easum, Read More …
Worldwide Image of the USA (#0906)
The Pew Research Center offers you the opportunity to "test how much you know about the worldwide image of the United States" by taking a 10 question multiple choice quiz. After completing the quiz, I encourage you to learn the story behind each of the questions. So What? For me completing this quiz was an exercise in humility; I scored 60%, answering just 6 of the 10 questions correctly. When one lives within an empire, a culture, or a worldview it is all too easy to see Read More …
Effective Social Media Usage (#0905)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who previously served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church. His effective use of social media while serving as moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA helped many mainline leaders appreciate the value of social media for ministry. In an October 2012 presentation to the Miami Valley Presbytery (Dayton, OH) on social media and the church, Reyes-Chow offered five tips for effective Read More …
Review of A Year of Biblical Womanhood (#0904)
Meet the Author Rachel Held Evans is a popular author and speaker. After working for a few newspapers, she began writing on her own. Her blog has won numerous awards and is consistently ranked among the most popular Christian blogs. Held Evans has written two books: Evolving in Monkey Town (2010) and A Year of Biblical Womanhood (2012). Her work has been featured on NPR, Slate, The BBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian(UK), The Read More …
Rethinking the Middle Class (#0903)
Steve Thorngate's October Christian Century article, "Defining the Middle: The Rhetoric and Reality of Class," challenges readers to reconsider what middle class means and who should be included in such a group today. Based on household income data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, Thorngate argues that the current political rhetoric suggests that 83% of households are middle class. He arrives at this number by excluding those below the poverty Read More …