A significant part of the life of a church is gathering together for worship. While many congregations do so in buildings they own, an increasing number do so in rented space. Renting is an attractive option for new congregations, for those in areas with expensive real estate, for those with limited needs for space during the week, for those in the midst of rapid growth, and for those who simply prefer to be without the burdens of property ownership. In many communities, Read More …
Trends
What is an Undergraduate Degree Worth? (#0383)
With the rising costs in higher education, prospective students are increasingly weighing the likely return on investment before enrolling. Beckie Supiano's recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, suggests that rather than asking whether or not an undergraduate degree is a worthwhile investment, individual students should instead look at specific degree plans. She cites Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce's extensive report Read More …
Review of Virtually You (#0381)
Meet the Author Elias Aboujaoude is a psychiatrist who serves as Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic and the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research interests have focused on obsessive compulsive disorder and behavior addictions, including problematic Internet use. Aboujaoude has written two books: Compulsive Acts: A Psychiatrist's Tales of Ritual and Obsession Read More …
A New Trend: Long-Lasting Marriages (#0380)
The first few sentences of Carol Morello's recent Washington Post article explain a significant trend: Americans may be postponing marriage, and fewer are wedding at all. But what about the people who do get married? They’re staying together longer than they have in years. Three in four couples who married after 1990 celebrated a 10-year anniversary, according to census statistics reported Wednesday. That was a rise of three percentage points compared with couples who married in the early Read More …
Most Americans Now Favor Legal Gay Marriage (#0375)
According to Gallup's latest Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 5-8, a majority of Americans (53%) now support equal marriage rights for same sex couples as for opposite sex couples. This graph below shows how opinions have changed over time, with the single greatest percentage gain in marriage equality coming over the last year (9%). So What? For the first time ever, according to Gallup's poll, the majority of Americans now support marriage equality. When one Read More …
Technology and the Church: Crisis or Opportunity (#0373)
Lisa Miller is the author of Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (2010), and formerly served as religion editor at Newsweek. She recently wrote "My Take: how technology could bring down the church," for CNN's Belief Blog. In this article Miller argues that the printing press was the key technology that enabled the success of the Protestant Reformation and the current move away from print editions of the Bible to digital ones like YouVersion may enable Read More …
Classroom Conversations Go the Way of Social Media (#0372)
Trip Gabriel's recent New York Times article, "Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media," explores the uses of backchannels (real-time online dialogue about a speaker or topic) in the classroom. While backchannels are being utilized at all levels of education - from elementary schools to graduate degree programs - the overall adoption rates are low. Those who leverage this new interactive supplement to the learning experience employ a variety of means including Twitter, Read More …
Members as Social Media Advocates (#0367)
Matt Carlisle is a self-described "evangelist for web and social media" who previously served as the executive designer, producer and editor of UMC.org, the official website of The United Methodist Church. He founded Big Heart Design, a web and social media strategy consulting firm, and recently wrote about the importance of local congregations training members to become "your greatest social media advocates." Specifically, he suggests churches would benefit from offering Read More …
Giving Less (#0366)
The Barna Group's latest research suggests that the current economic crisis continues to impact how much Christians contribute to their local congregations. In short: In the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis in late 2008, two out of 10 Americans (20%) had reduced their giving to a church or religious center; three out of 10 (31%) had downsized their giving to other nonprofits. Then, 14 months later, in January of 2010, both measures had increased: three in 10 adults had reduced Read More …
New Ways of Being Church (#0365)
One of many signs of the increasing awareness of the importance of technology for ministry was The Clergy Journal's April/May 2011 edition's theme: Technology and Community: Building Community. Keith Howard, past executive director of the Emerging Spirit initiative of the United Church of Canada, and Aaron McCarroll Gallegos, executive producer of wondercafe.ca, contributed an article entitled "Technology and Community Building," which includes these challenging words: Social media Read More …