After my first time away from parish ministry since the early days of seminary, I will be returning to that role effective May 1 when I assume the role of Director of Adult Education at Naples United Church of Christ. Some of my regular readers may be familiar with that name as I have written several times about my volunteer leadership experiences in this community of faith, especially in leading worship (i.e. sermon manuscript or other recent materials: 1, 2, 3, 4). Read More …
The Most Popular “Church Blogs” or Are They? (#0332)
Kent Shaffer is the founder of ChurchRelevance.com, an online resource created to inspire and train ministers to be more relevant and effective, and a volunteer strategist for lifechurch.tv. He recently published his updated list of the "Top 200 "church blogs." His list intrigues me for several reasons, beginning with his methodology, which he describes as follows: Several hundred blogs are reviewed in a preliminary screening to determine if their statistics are competitive enough to be Read More …
No Generation Left Behind: Social Media in Ministry (#0331)
Earlier this year I wrote about generational differences in online activity based on data from a Pew Research Center study that showed how many people in each generation participate in various online activities. The percentage of people who participate in a given category tends to decline from generation to generation, but even the oldest generations still engage in a significant amount of online activity. Increasingly the digital divide or gap between those who Read More …
Is Tithing Required? (#0330)
Cnn.com religion editor Dan Gilgoff shared the findings of a recent informal survey of the National Association of Evangelicals in a blog post. He writes: The survey, conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) among its 100-member board of directors, found that 42% of evangelical leaders believe the Bible requires tithing, while 58% do not . . . The National Association of Evangelicals, the nation’s biggest evangelical umbrella organization, would not say how many of its Read More …
Review of The Pastor by Eugene Peterson (#0329)
Meet the Author Eugene Peterson (b.1932) is the author of the best-selling The Message, which is his translation of the Bible into contemporary American language. He is an ordained Presbyterian (PCUSA) pastor who served as the founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland for twenty-nine years before retiring in 1991. Peterson has since assumed the title of Pastor Emeritus in that congregation. Following his retirement from parish ministry, Read More …
What the Church Is and What it Should Be (#0328)
Jason Fairbanks, pastor of First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) in Lake Worth, Florida, recently wrote a series of posts on his blog about what the church is and what it should be. In making his case for what the church should be he offered the wisdom given him by his father: A church is a hospital for those that find themselves hurting and on our doorstep. It is these that we have the opportunity to receive and to love. A church is a greenhouse for those interested in Read More …
Review of Existential Reasons for Belief in God (#0327)
Meet the Author Clifford Williams is professor of philosophy at Trinity International University's Trinity College and serves as chair of the philosophy department. His areas of expertise within the field of philosophy include free will and determinism, religious dividedness, philosophy of time, and philosophy of love and friendship. Williams' recent books include Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires & Emotions for Faith (2011), The Divided Soul: Read More …
Who Do You Follow? (#0326)
Recently technology expert Scott McClellan, editor of Collide and director of Echo, asked people to answer a poll about how they determine who to follow on Twitter. As of 11pm EST on April 7, the responses show that almost all respondents (92%) follow "anyone who might add value." Interestingly, of the 116 votes cast only 10 were for another option (4 for "only people I actually know," 3 for "everyone who follows me" and 3 for "as few people as possible." So Read More …
Has Church Giving Rebounded? (#0325)
Last week the findings of the third annual "STATE of the PLATE" shows that after two years of steep decline, giving to churches increased slightly in 2010. Writing for USA Today, Cathy Lynn Grossmann summarized the research with four bullet points: Giving is up: 43% of churches saw increased giving in 2010, up from 36% in 2009. The decline has stabilized: 39% of churches said giving was down in 2010, 38% last year. December offered a boost: Christmas-time generosity often puts Read More …
Learning from Gen Y: Thoughts of a New Reformation (#0324)
Bradley N. Hill, a minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church, recently wrote an article for the Christian Century suggesting that the way most churches operate (an attractional model) will never effectively engage Generation Y (those he characterizes as being born between 1976 and 2000) for many reasons including: . . . advertisement is just part of the background white noise of our culture. No impersonal website or advertisement, no program or event flyer, poster or radio spot will entice Read More …