Jeff Boes, moderator of the Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in St. Joseph, Michigan, wrote an interesting article for Church Marketing Sucks about his congregation's experience with positive picketing. Boes shared these "notes on our tactics and lessons learned:" Make it quick and easy None of our picket signs identify the church Good locations and good causes Don’t ask permission Keep learning and improving So What? Negative picketing done in the Read More …
Are You Going to Burn Out? (#0159)
Perry Noble is the Senior Pastor of New Spring Church, which has been recognized as one of America's largest churches. According to the Hartford Institute, this Southern Baptist congregation averages over 9,000 people in attendance on a weekly basis. You can connect with him by following him on twitter or by reading his blog. Noble writes extensively about leadership on his blog, including a recent piece about seven reasons leaders flame out: We Allow Our Schedule To Read More …
Learning from The Five Levels of Leadership (#0158)
John C. Maxwell is perhaps the best known living Christian author in the field of leadership. He has written over fifty books, including three that have sold more than a million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. To learn more, visit his website, read his blog, or follow him on twitter. Recently, he unveiled a graphic overview of his next book: The Five Levels of Leadership, Read More …
Is Birmingham the Capital of American Christianity? (#0157)
An article on The Barna Group's website seems to suggest that Birmingham is the most Christian city in the United States. The article is based on 39,423 telephone interviews conducted over the last seven years and published as two reports: Markets 2011 and States 2011. Birmingham is ranked first among weekly church attendance (67%) and second in the number of people who self-identify as being Christian (96%). No other city was ranked in the top four in both Read More …
Moving the Mainline Forward (#0156)
The Future of Mainline Denominations Recently, I have written several articles designed to introduce my readers to a variety of perspectives related to the future of mainline denominations. Leaders within the mainline denominations understand that change is essential to reverse the decades of decline. In recent posts, I have shared many voices including those of Peter Wallace, Bruce Epperly, and Bruce Reyes Chow Stephen Sterner Landon Whitsitt Read More …
Text Ministry (#0155)
Just a few years ago, most people thought of cell phones primarily as phones. In 2010, a cell phone means much more to teenagers. According to recent research conducted by the Pew Research Center, "Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, email, instant messaging and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group." According to even more recent research by The Nielsen Company, the average teenager Read More …
What if No One Comes? More Decline in the Mainline (#0154)
Fewer and Fewer Worshippers For the last several decades, membership in mainline denominations has been declining. Over time, membership has become a less helpful statistic in part due to a change in how younger people view church membership. Given these changes and others, church attendance has become the sociological standard measuring growth or decline. Lovett H. Weems Jr., distinguished professor of church leadership and director of the Lewis Center for Read More …
Review of To Change the World (#0153)
Hunter, James Davison. To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199730803. Meet the Author Since 1983, James Davison Hunter has been teaching at the University of Virginia and researching American culture. Currently, he is the LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory as well as the Director of the Institute for Read More …
Reconsidering Ambition (#0152)
Will Willimon (United Methodist Bishop, author of over sixty books and over six hundred scholarly articles, prolific blogger, and popular speaker) wrote a thought provoking article about ambition, which was posted earlier today on Leadership Journal. The brief article is worth reading, but the following excerpts are especially worth pondering: So I can't think of any reason why we clergy shouldn't admit ambition, shouldn't examine and strategize on the basis of our Read More …
The Future of Mainline Denominations (#0151)
The Future of Mainline Protestantism As a group, mainline Protestants have experienced ongoing decline in membership for multiple decades. In recent years some have replaced "mainline" with terms like "old line" or "sidelined." Looking forward, almost everyone agrees that unless something changes significantly the decline will continue. While some writers have focused on the decline including the likely causes and others are calling for the end of Read More …