Shifting from membership to missionary engagements When the world we are called to reach is increasingly secular, unchurched, de-churched and non- interested in church, it’s time to reframe membership policies and practices. ‘Membership’ served a church culture fairly well. Today,…
Libby Allen’s bucket list
By Brett Younger Someone in the housing office — not Libby, someone not as competent as Libby — loses my paperwork. I arrive as a new student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1983 and a young woman who, given…
Welcome to the church of the casserole
Many non-mega congregations mistakenly believe they do not have any competitive advantages over a nearby mega church or one of its satellite campuses. Once again they are wrong. Their first mistake is the believing they have to compete. Beyond that…
Fledglings take flight
By Molly T. Marshall I have recently learned that there are eagle voyeurs in our midst. Normal people otherwise, they are absolutely fanatics when it comes to following the progress of these raptors. Through the wonders of “eagle cams,” which…
How do we get along when there’s no middle ground? Part 1
The other day, as I was reading one of the daily news emails that arrive in my inbox, I came across a story that I thought surely must have been ripped from the pages of The Onion. Two New York…
Thinking about you on Mother’s Day, dear Mary
By Nora O. Lozano Dear Mary, I am not sure if when you were on this earth, there was anything similar in your time and culture to Mother’s Day. Regardless of the day, I do hope that Jesus and your…
Missions: Almost an out-of-body experience
[This is the third (missions) of a nine-part series on empowering a faith community to impact the world. Already hospitality and evangelism have been explored.] You’ve been there before. It’s that place of connection and you realize God is surreptitiously…
Welcome to the church of the rationalization
Surely you have heard of congregations with names such as The Church of the Resurrection, The Church of the Redeemer, and The Church of the Reformation. But, have you heard of The Church of The Rationalization? You may not know…
Beyond the thumbnail image
By Corey Fields On social media, posts always get better engagement when there is a thumbnail image to go with it. Ours is a distracted and fast-paced society, and the speed at which we scroll through Facebook may be indicative…