With church attendance on the decline in many communities and an increasing disinterest in church attendance and membership, newcomers, visitors/guests are a rare and seemingly desired and valued group by churches today. I have been in a clergy role, lay…
Bi-vocational: Mission impossible?
Recently, I participated in a wonderful gathering of diverse ministers and laypersons who were called together to discuss economic challenges facing future ministers. The conversation was both broad and deep, for each person brought unique experience and perspective to the…
Bivocational ministry is a thing of great beauty
You can call it bivocational ministry, two or dual career ministry, tentmaking, conjoint ministry, multi-focused ministry, or something else. Yet, when referring to the commitment of a majority of people in Christian ministry one or more of these titles fit….
People moving around less; Baptist News Global asks what that means for today’s churches
“Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?” Carole King asked musically. Well, researchers at the Barna Group have the answer: More and more Americans are doing so. And Jeff Brumley of the Baptist News Global operation looks at whether people…
What’s in a name? Religious nones and the American religious landscape
Over the last several years the term religious “Nones” has become a major topic of discussion and analysis by those who pay attention to religious trends.
Scott Boulevard Baptist: A church without walls
By Joe LaGuardia A pile of rubble and a towering, broken steeple are all that is left of the historic Scott Boulevard Baptist Church building on the corner of Scott Boulevard and North Decatur Road in Decatur, Georgia. To many…
Is your church fragile or agile?
One of the most excruciating congregational projects I’ve ever experienced was a strategy planning process at a church where I served on staff early in my ministry. Over the course of 18 months, I watched as a star-studded leadership group…
The 4 dangers of relevance
In church life, it seems we always desire to be relevant. We want relevant teaching and preaching with practical application. Relevant youth and children’s programs, and even relevant music. There is, however, a danger in always trying to be relevant…
Brave church
Brave churches are particularly faithful churches, if you ask me. They make bold choices. They favor holiness over appearances. Their modus operandi is counterintuitive. How brave is your congregation? Your church staff currently consists of two Associate Pastors who are…
Higher Calling, Lower Wages: The Vanishing of the Middle-Class Clergy
As full-time pastors become a thing of the past, more and more seminary grads are taking on secular jobs to supplement their incomes. Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these ways Subscribe…
Is your church enlarging its bandwidth?
It was a simple question from a CHC colleague: “Larry, do you have enough bandwidth to help me with a church staff analysis?” Initially, I had no idea what he was asking. “Bandwidth?” I had to catch up with the…
Tapping the Millennial Imagination: On FAO Schwarz, Don Quixote, and the Dying Church
Millennials are more optimistic than they have any right to be. Does this signal hope for the dying church? Millennials are the “in” generation. Love us or hate us, every day stories scroll across my newsfeed filled with statistics and…