Last week I wrote that the de-churched (those once involved in church who have stopped participating) not only account for 1 out of every 3 American adults, but are also the fastest growing group. Soon after posting those thoughts, I encountered a rather discouraging word to categorize a significant portion of the de-churched: "dones." Thom Shultz, founder of Group Publishing and Lifetree Cafe, recently reflected on sociologist Josh Packard's talk about the "dones" at Group's Future Read More …
Church Turnaround: An Example (#1495)
Rick McKinley, Director of Congregational Development for the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, recently shared an example of church turnaround. While I encourage you to read his entire account, I want to focus on one significant shift: the role of pastor. Based on what they'd learned about themselves and their community, a strategic change in pastoral leadership was made. They were told that the new pastor wasn't going to hold their hand. Pastoral leadership as they Read More …
Immigration Questions (#1494)
After six years of back and forth about immigration and over 500 days after the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill, President Obama announced his broad executive action designed to provide temporary protection for 5 million undocumented immigrants that will ensure they are not deported. The impacted immigrants will still need to wait on Congress to take action to provide a pathway to citizenship or another permanent opportunity to remain in the United States. In last Read More …
1 in 3 Americans are De-Churched (#1493)
Churchlessness has been on the rise in American for quite some time growing from 30% during the 1990s to 33% during the 2000s before reaching 43% in 2014. These statistics appear as a part of an infographic on the first page of Churchless: Understanding Today's Unchurched and How to Connect with Them (2014) by the Barna Group with George Barna and David Kinnaman as general editors. That same graphic continues with the image at right, breaking both the churched and unchurched Read More …
Changes in Christian Affiliation in Latin America (#1492)
Last week the Pew Research Center released findings from their recent survey examining religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in 18 countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico) across Latin America and the Caribbean. While this region of the world is home to over 400 million Catholics (nearly 40% of the global total) and despite the popularity of the first Latin American Pope, affiliation with Catholicism is declining rapidly. Dramatic Decline From the 1900s through the Read More …
Back to Our Jesus-Roots (#1491)
John Dominic Crossan is among those who have shaped and continue to shape my understanding of who Jesus was and why that matters for me as one who seeks to earnestly follow the Way of Jesus. His two most recent books have each made my top books of the year in the year they were published: The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus (2012 Top Books List) and The Greatest Prayer Ever: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord’s Prayer (2010 Top Read More …
Worship: Mainline Church Planting Trends (#1490)
The Ecumenical Partners in Outreach collaborated with the Center for Progressive Renewal to conduct the largest study (so far this century) of church planting activities in the major mainline churches of the US and Canada. A 12 page summary of findings, available online free of charge, highlights eight key insights. Insight #7 Worship Matters (p.11) Time spent on worship relates strongly to growth, at least among traditional and new immigrant churches. Among alternative churches trying Read More …
Christian Belief in a Personal God (#1489)
Tobin Grant recently wrote an insightful article calling attention to the fact that just because American Christians believe in God does not mean that they believe in is a personal God. Using data from the 2007 Religious Landscape Survey Grant provides graphical representations of what percentage of American Christians in each of 43 religious traditions believe in God followed by another illustrating what percentage of these believe in a personal God. Focusing on belief in a personal God Read More …
My New Role: Transitional Minister (#1488)
I am delighted to announce that effective January 1, 2015 I will begin a new role as Transitional Senior Minister at Fort Myers Congregational UCC (Fort Myers, FL). Process Their current minister, Rev. Phil White, is retiring at the end of this year after serving in that role for the last decade. I have known Phil for several years, and am thankful he extended an invitation to me to serve as a guest preacher this summer. July 20: A Holy Invitation July 27: Persisting for the Read More …
November Book Recommendations (#1487)
This past month I had the pleasure of reading several good books, including (5) The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins by Stephen J. Patterson (2014) (4.5) City of God: Faith in the Streets by Sara Miles (2014) (4.5) Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation by William J. Barber II (2014) (4) Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church by Scot McKnight (2014) (4) Pastors Sound Read More …