Lutheran (ELCA) pastor Rich Melheim is the founder and chief creative officer of Faith Inkubators, which he describes as "a Christian education systems design think tank and resource provider dedicated to incubating faith every night in every home." In the February 22, 2012 edition of the Christian Century, he answered several questions regarding faith formation as a family matter, including one about high school youth ministry. Q: How do you define a successful church program for Read More …
Christianity is Bigger than That (#0647)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, until May of this year, and was the former moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA. On the conservative Red Letter Christians blog he recently shared "An Open Letter to Frustrated Christians in the United States," featuring these words: Like many of you from across the theological and political spectrum, I am disturbed by the Read More …
1,000 Open and Affirming Congregations (#0646)
The United Church of Christ is known for being first: 1785 - first ordained African American pastor 1853 - first woman pastor 1972 - ordination of first openly gay minister Today, the denomination celebrates another first as it welcomes its 1,000th Open and Affirming congregation. Open and affirming congregations have publicly and specifically declared that those of all “sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions” (or “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” Read More …
More Decline in the Mainline: UCC in Florida (#0645)
I recently received the latest statistics about the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ. Between 2000 and 2010 membership declined 23.6% and giving through congregations to Our Church's Wider Mission (provides funding for the work of UCC Conference and National ministries) declined 42.7%. So What? The Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ is not unique. Mainline churches have been experiencing membership decline for decades. In Read More …
American Religion from 1970 to 2010 (#0644)
America is a rather religious country. The chart below (Religions of the World, p. 3002) provides an overview of American religion in 1970 and in 2010 alongside data about what percentage of the population each group comprised in 2010 and the annual growth rate for each during the most recent decade. So What? Despite the increases in religious pluralism, more than 4 in 5 Americans were Christian in 2010. Are you surprised to learn that Protestants declined in total numbers Read More …
Atheism 2.0 (#0643)
Alain de Botton's new book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion (2012), will be available in early March. If it is anything like his TED talk on Atheism 2.o, it will be worth reviewing and discussing. In his nearly 20-minute long talk in Edinburgh, Scotland last summer he shared these words: Now what is Atheism 2.0? Well it starts from a very basic premise: of course, there's no God. Of course, there are no deities or supernatural Read More …
Generational Church Experiences (#0642)
The Barna Group recently conducted a poll about the impact of church experiences. The results of this poll show that the size of the church attended had little or no effect on the way respondents characterized their experience, but the generation of the respondents had a considerable impact: So What? This survey included over 1,000 American adults who "have attended a Christian church sometime in the past." In general, Mosaics and Busters (groups covering those from age 18-46) scored Read More …
Teach Better (#0641)
Whether the classroom is a university lecture hall, a business conference room, or a church library most people assume the subject matter expert will convey information in such a manner as to aid would be students in the learning process. The expectations relative to the teaching-learning experience rise proportional to the formality and expectations of the environment. Near the high expectation end of this continuum are credit courses at Ivy League universities. Dan Berrett's Read More …
Go Slow (#0640)
Guy Chmieleski has served in campus ministry at four institutions of higher education associated with three different denominations (Baptist, United Methodist and Church of Christ). He recently blogged about pace of life, reminding everyone that today's traditional college students have lived their whole lives in an instant culture. The only real change these young adults have experienced is fast has becoming faster. To help overcome this he proposes: I think we need to Read More …
The Other Half (#0639)
Protestant churches have done exceptionally well among those who are married and even better among those who are married and have children. These groups, as a percentage of the total American population, have been shrinking for decades and likely will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The latest data from the Pew Research Center shows that only half of adults (51%) aged 18 and older were married in 2010. Additionally, the median age for first marriage has risen steadily Read More …