Leadership Network just released their bi-annual Large Church Salary and Benefits Report, which explores the results of their latest survey of many of the largest Protestant churches in America and Canada. For the purpose of the research "large churches" are those with 1000+ in average weekly worship attendance while "megachurch" status is reserved for those with 2000+ in weekly worship attendance. For those interested in more details, the full 31 page Read More …
Trends
Poorer = More Religious? (#0143)
Gallup recently published an article explaining the results of their 2009 survey on global religiosity, which consisted of telephone and face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults in each of 119 countries. The data shows that "religion continues to play an important role in many people's lives worldwide." Specifically: The global median proportion of adults who say religion is an important part of their daily lives is 84% Money matters: lower per-capita income is Read More …
Celebrating my Twitterversary (#0142)
Happy Twitterversary Sowhatfaith I joined Twitter one year ago today, which makes today my first twitterversary. Initially, I tweeted sparingly (between 31 and 56 times a month). Once I felt more familiar with the discipline , I tweeted a bit more (between 89 and 97 times a month). Last month I fully embraced tweeting and posted more than ever by some margin (276 tweets). This month I am on pace for about the same number of tweets as last Read More …
Glenn Beck the Spiritual Leader? (#0138)
Glenn Beck is best known as a conservative news commentator and host of The Glenn Beck Program. In recent months, he has made comments and taken actions that lead many to believe he is seeking or has assumed a new role as a religious leader. During his March 2 radio program he said: I beg you, look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Read More …
Review of Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told (#0137)
Wright, Bradley R. E. Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media. Bethany House, 2010. ISBN: 9780764207464 Meet the Author Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. After keeping quiet about his Christian faith early in his career, Wright became more open after gaining tenure. His specialties include religion, social Read More …
A Youth Movement in Pastoral Ministry (#0133)
Many mainline denominations face or will soon face clergy shortages. As a result several denominations have and others are in the process of creating guidelines that allow multiple paths to ministry especially to facilitate providing enough clergy to fill pastoral positions in smaller congregations. Young clergy in their twenties and thirties are increasingly rare and makeup a small percentage of the clergy in any given denominational tradition, especially in traditions where a Read More …
Review of Transformational Church (#0132)
Stetzer, Ed and Rainer, Thom S. Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations. B&H Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781433669300. Meet the Authors Ed Stetzer is the President and Missiologist in Residence of LifeWay Research. Ed is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and Catalyst Monthly, serves on the advisory council of Sermon Central and Christianity Today’s Building Church Leaders, and is Read More …
Review of Nudge (#0130)
Sweet, Leonard. Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who's Already There. David C. Cook, 2010. ISBN: 9781434764744. Meet the Author Leonard Sweet is the E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Drew University and visiting distinguished professor of Evangelism at George Fox University, was voted one of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America, and continues to write and speak prophetically about the church. An ordained United Methodist pastor, Sweet has authored Read More …
Progressive Christian Worship Music (#0124)
Bryan Sirchio is uniquely qualified to write about progressive Christian worship music. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he was ordained in the United Church of Christ and served as a pastor. Since 1987 he has traveled extensively doing concerts and leading worship services and retreats through his own Crosswind Music. Sirchio has released 12 CDs, 3 study guides, and 4 songbooks. He is currently writing his first book: Progressive Christian Read More …
The Future of the UCC (#0123)
Over the last few years, the assumption that denominations will continue "as is" for many years to come has been dying. Increasingly, mainline pastors and even denominational leaders have been advocating for a variety of possibilities for reform that will help give shape to a new type of national organization that will be for their respective tradition what denomination served as in modernity. A week ago, Stephen Sterner wrote an article about what he sees as likely for the future of the Read More …