The United Church of Christ, a progressive mainline denomination with 1.1 million members, recently launched a creative campaign designed to land Ellen DeGeneres as a keynote speaker at their General Synod, which will be held from July 1-5 in Tampa, Florida. Geoffrey A. Black, the UCC's General Minister and President, wrote a letter explaining why and how the denomination is pursuing Ellen: Your life, values and humor represent the best of what our church hopes to embody Read More …
Trends
Learning from Starbucks (#0170)
Waited the full 30 mins and went in RR to checksmall leakage on pantyremoved - all about 1/2 to 2/3peed and didn't have muchencouraged her to try again and be sure bladder fully emptypassed just a little moreMom on her way back - so she's planning to just wait and try OB in a couple of mins Leonard Sweet's The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion has helped many people give greater consideration to lessons the church can learn from Starbucks. In an interview about Read More …
National Porn Sunday (#0166)
In 2005 Craig Gross and Mike Foster debuted their documentary, "Missionary Positions," and began talking in local churches about pornography and the problems they believe it creates in people's lives. These experiences were marketed as "Porn Sundays" and later became the foundation for an annual National Porn Sunday. To date, over 300 congregations have participated in this event. In 2011, National Porn Sunday has been moved to February 6 to coincide with the Read More …
5 Ways to Use Social Media (#0164)
Scott McClellan is the editor of Collide: a magazine for church leaders who use media and technology to communicate Truth. Additionally, he is the director of Echo: a media and tech conference for creative church leaders. To learn more about McClellan visit his website, friend him on facebook, or follow him on twitter. Earlier this week he wrote about five ways your organization can and should use social media: Listen: follow thought leaders, culture Read More …
Handling the Issue of Homosexuality (#0162)
Research conducted earlier this month by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service provides a unique look into an important topic. The second survey question asked, "If you had to grade America's places of worship on how they are handling the issue of homosexuality - would you give them an A, a B, a C, a D, or an F? A: 5% B: 11% C: 30% D: 18 % F: 24% Don't Know: 12% The third survey question asked, "If you had to grade your own place Read More …
Controversial Marketing (#0161)
Recently, Christ Covenant Church in Beaumont, Texas launched a controversial billboard campaign carrying the message that Christians are jerks. According to an article by Kate Shellnutt, the church's billboard (pictured at right) has "confused and surprised drivers along I-10 near College--is meant to direct people to the Christ Covenant website and their new sermon series: What a Bunch of Jerks: Teachings of Jesus too Often Ignored by the Church." A page on the church's website explains Read More …
Positive Picketing (#0160)
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 …
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 …