If not Sunday worship, then what?
As Sunday morning loses its hold on churchgoers and potential churchgoers, what comes next? How do faith communities nurture relationships? How do..
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Responding to hate: Be not afraid
It is time for congregations to develop protocols for responding to hate initiatives on their doorsteps. As the intolerant lose any..
Pathways to participation
The final stage of an effective membership recruitment process happens when the constituent actually affiliates with your congregation. For some that will..
The hard work of affiliation
Until the day your congregants get biblical about tithing, your stewardship efforts will depend mostly on membership development. Grow your congregation and..
Watch and learn
While my wife browsed T.J. Maxx for trousers, I sat on a curb outside and observed people going in and out of..
Fresh directions
"We're stuck, aren't we?" asked several participants in a recent church workshop. Yes, they are stuck. So are many churches – and..
Lively highways
I had a stark revelation in February as I drove across the Mojave Desert on day three of “Fresh Day on the..
Effective leadership
Effective leadership has three requirements: A compelling vision (where we want to get); Incremental steps (what we will do next to get there);..
Stewardship shifts
I see stirrings of annual church stewardship pro- grams: pledge cards in the mail, appeals in writing and from the pulpit, maybe..
Rethinking the ministry of the people
Many factors determine a congregation's health – from quality of leadership to clarity of mission to location to financial strength. No factor,..
The new age of ad hoc connections
For many years, churches used the language of “belonging.” Now we find ourselves in a world where “belonging” has changed and, for..
Looking radically outward
I figure 1957 was the high-water mark of mainline Protestantism in the U.S. Although mainline churches kept growing until 1965, it..
5 ways churches can help stop the Ebola hysteria (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) Once the first person in America died from Ebola, the usual bigots and ideologues blamed it on President Obama, whom they loathe...
Stop being unsafe places
Church leaders often worry that Sunday morning is the ”most segregated day of the week.” On Sunday, churchgoers gather inside congregations that..
Managing money and feeding souls
Some church leaders call it a “challenge budget,” others a “faith budget.” I call it a bad idea. Faced with a gap..
The other narrative about Ferguson, Mo. (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) Left to their own devices, residents and officials of Ferguson, Mo., probably could have sorted out the shooting of an unarmed..
The friendliness charism
As I contemplate moving my home and office to a rural area of upstate New York, I worry about being isolated and..
Visible actions
From time to time, traumatic events in society require the congregation to make response. Recent shootings at University of California Santa Barbara..
Re-examining, re-purposing
Church development is about many things — best practices, capable leadership, listening to the world — but the most difficult to grasp,..
Same place, different people
When I started traveling to Europe on business in 1999, airplanes looked and behaved more or less the same as they do..
Sunday worship turning stale? Maybe it’s time to think small
I got a whole new look at my neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan the other day. It was around 4 p.m...
A parched patch of prejudice (Commentary)
By Tom Ehrich (RNS) Conservative Christians are claiming that their religious freedom requires free rein for legalized discrimination. That’s a clever argument...
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