David O'Reilly's Philadelphia Inquirer article, A Study Asks: What's a Church's Economic Worth?, explores the findings of a recent study investigating the economic worth of select local congregations in Philadelphia. The research was conducted last summer by Partners for Sacred Places and Ram Cnaan, professor of social welfare at the University of Pennsylvania. In additional to chairing the doctoral program in social welfare, Cnaan (pictured at Read More …
Statistical Surprises: Marriage and Divorce (#0317)
The Daily Number is provided by the Pew Research Center that "highlights an important finding or trend." A few days ago, the number looked at the unusually high rates of both marriage and divorce in the United States. When compared to the European Union, Americans are far more likely to experience marriage (51% higher) or divorce (76% higher). Interestingly, however, American divorce rates in the sample year (33% of the measured events) were similar to those in the EU Read More …
Review of The Truth Shall Make You Odd (#0316)
Frank G. Honeycutt. The Truth Shall Make You Odd: Speaking with Pastoral Integrity in Awkward Situations. Brazos Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781587432637. Meet the Author Frank G. Honeycutt is an ordained Lutheran (ELCA) pastor with twenty-five years of parish ministry experience who currently serves as Senior Pastor of the nearly 900 member Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina. He is the author of six books including Marry a Pregnant Virgin: Unusual Bible Read More …
Reshaping Seminary Education (#0315)
Earlier this month, I wrote "A Shift in Theological Education" to highlight the shift in seminary education from primarily an on campus face-to-face learning experience to one that includes hybrid (using both face-to-face and online components) or online courses. This shift mirrors what has happened in higher education more generally where online enrollment grew 20% over the most recently available seven year period from 9% to 29%. Interestingly, The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Read More …
Review of Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood (#0314)
Alan J. Roxburgh. Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood. Baker Books, 2011. ISBN: 780801072314. Meet the Author Alan J. Roxburgh is the President of the Missional Network (formerly Roxburgh Missional Network), which is "committed to resourcing missional leaders with the best training, consulting and hands-on resources for innovating missional life in local congregations and communities of faith." Previously he served in pastoral ministry for over twenty-five years. Read More …
Defining Success in Youth Ministry (#0313)
Danny Ferguson serves as an area director for YFC/Youth Unlimited, which is an expression of Youth for Christ International. Yesterday he wrote about what success looks like in youth ministry. Ferguson asked youth ministry leaders to provide "their 140 character definition of success" via Twitter and published several of those responses, including: Enabling young people to come alive in joy and to be everything they were made to be!! - that's an attempt!! – Read More …
Do you Attend a Living Church or a Dying Church? (#0312)
Sam Trumbore is a Unitarian Universalist (UUA) pastor who currently serves as minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany (New York). Previously, he was Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Charlotte County, Florida. Recently he wrote a piece contrasting the experiences of living churches with those of dying churches. This article was originally published in the newsletter of a Charlotte county church: Pilgrim United Church of Christ. More recently it Read More …
Observe then Engage: Youth Ministry 101 (#0311)
Brooklyn Lindsey is a pastor who currently oversees the middle school ministry at Highland Park Church in Lakeland, Florida and has recently written two books: Oppposite Day: Upside-Down Questions to Keep Students Talking and Listening (2009) and Confessions of a Not-So-Supermodel: Faith, Friends and Festival Queens (2008). She recently blogged about some advice she offered the leaders in her congregation who work with middle school students, which she suggests is helpful for those working Read More …
Nuclear Realities and Religious Responsibility (#0310)
Last week I attended Florida Gulf Coast University's annual Interfaith Clergy Seminar, which is organized by the university's Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Human Rights Studies. I have had the pleasure of attending this event three of the first four years it has been held. Each year I appreciate the intentional interaction with clergy of other faiths more than the previous year. While there has been a highly regarded speaker at each seminar, this was the first year that the Read More …
Will Talking by Phone Disappear? (#0309)
When I was a child people who wanted to talk to someone else either physically went where that person was or picked up a phone and called that person. The phone we used to place the call was either a home phone or a pay phone. In the 1980s it seemed every home had a phone and everywhere that was not a home had a pay phone. It was only when I was a teen in the early 1990s that I moved into the leading edge world of being able to be contacted without a phone. A beeper, Read More …