Rolling out with those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer is the longest and perhaps most difficult season of the church calendar. From May 27 until Nov. 23—24 Sundays in all—the Church is in a season simply known as “after…
VITAL SIGNS: Jesus on strategic planning
Building a congregation’s life around a clear vision and purpose is an easy thing to believe in. Aligning that purpose with biblical teaching and witness is an agreeable notion. I seldom encounter a leader or leadership group who resists the…
OUT LOUD
“Mormonism isn’t a denomination. It’s a different religion but calling it a ‘cult’ is not helpful.” Ed Stetzer The president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research, in a tweet. (RNS) “Praise the Lord and pass the rattlesnakes, brother.” Mack…
LEADERSHIP LINK: No more giant apps—a browser is all you need
In my bookshelf sits a copy of the B&H Publishing Group classic trade book from 1991, Help, There’s a Computer in My Church! Suprisingly, I have yet to be able to convince our leadership team to convert it into ePub….
LEADERSHIP LINK: Does your church conduct an annual audit?
For most of us the term “audit” calls to mind the potential of being notified by the IRS that our income tax returns will be scrutinized by their examiners. But the term simply means to examine or evaluate. Originally it…
HERITAGE: A bold friend to truth
Julian Howell Pentecost felt called to the ministry as a young boy. He once confided his feelings to his mother who prayed for God’s guidance. He was affirmed by his home church, Lawrenceville Baptist Church. In 1942 he entered the…
TRENDING: The stuck and broken?
Recently, I was part of a conversation with 10 pastors discussing discipleship. All agreed that their churches were producing exactly what they were engineered to produce: attenders. There’s nothing wrong with attending church. You just can’t say attending church automatically…
Potential first African-American president says SBC shouldn’t be defined by race
NEW ORLEANS (RNS)—The Southern Baptist Convention began in 1845 in support of slaveholders and is now poised to elect its first African-American president, Fred Luter Jr., in June. “It’s a new day in the [SBC],” Luter told the PBS program…
Retro music
CHICAGO (RNS)—Every year, some 100,000 pilgrims trek to the Taize ecumenical community in France where the biggest attraction is the music, a throwback—way, way back, about 1,500 years or so—to repetitive plainchant. Last month, for the first time, the Taize…
Power of faith
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS)—Andrew Hamblin’s Facebook page is filled with snippets of his life. Making a late-night run to Taco Bell. Watching SpongeBob on the couch with his kids. Handling rattlesnakes in church. Hamblin, 21, pastor of Tabernacle Church of God…
Interfaith talks on the rise in the Bible Belt
Interfaith dialogue is on the rise, not just in formal conversations led by judicatory leaders but in local communities where friendships forge as ministers of various faiths work together for common goals amid increasing religious diversity in the Bible Belt….
Taize experience spiritually enriching for thousands
CHICAGO (RNS)—Every year, some 100,000 pilgrims trek to the Taize ecumenical community in France where the biggest attraction is the music, a throwback—way, way back, about 1,500 years or so—to repetitive plainchant. Last month, for the first time, the Taize…