Years ago when attendance was pretty low, Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., brought in a consultant who said, “You can either be a museum or a church.” The consultant had been going to the wrong museums. A good church is…
Is your church a movement or a program?
For the last half of the 20th century in America, local churches functioned as programmatic centers of activity. Embedded in a supportive churched and Christian culture, their role was to provide offerings that inspired, entertained and educated those who chose…
Like all movements, the Church is propelled by both potential energy and kinetic energy
Even the clouds appeared to be drawing their energy from the land — or so it seemed from my perspective from the passenger seat traveling the Brazilian countryside. Mile after mile revealed expansive fields of sugarcane, a source of ethanol,…
What if we ‘promoted’ in adult Sunday school again?
Decades ago, even among churches that retained adult Sunday school, we adults stopped promoting. More accurately, we adults refused to keep promoting. We put down our feet and said we would not move any more. We wanted to stay where we were.
Holy smoke: Barbecue with a side of faith
I think of my vegetarian friends like I think of my Jewish friends. I love and respect them, but we are of different faiths. I believe in barbecue. To the casual observer those who gather for a church barbecue have…
Congregations should keep eye on the (golf) ball for survival clues, church coach says
It’s become pretty common for churches struggling with declining memberships and tithing to study congregations that are doing well. But maybe they should focus on the game of golf, which has seen massive course closure rates since the economy tanked…
Tapping into vitality with congregational residencies
It’s a sociological axiom of congregational life that what we see indicated in North American megachurches functions as a “canary in the coal mine,” signaling what’s coming for the rest of U.S. congregations. With that in mind, here’s some of…
Why churches and Christian nonprofits need entrepreneurs
Read any current text on leadership and you will encounter the urgency of entrepreneurial thinking. As we move into a progressively unpredictable atmosphere, traditional incremental approaches are not cutting it. Ian C. MacMillan, director of Wharton’s Sol. C. Snider Entrepreneurial…
Letting go of the illusion of superhero pastor
It has been two months now since I made a spreadsheet for a cost analysis of commercial rolls of toilet paper and paper towels. Did you know that rolls of paper that tear off in neatly perforated, individual sheets cost…