By George Bullard You may have read my serious post responding to a real question from a real congregation where I provided 10 reasons for a non-denominational congregation to affiliate with a denomination. See it here. Now read my not-so-serious…
Pastors leave congregations, but God’s vision never leaves
By George Bullard The idea of congregations expecting the next pastor to bring them vision implies some very important things about the ongoing understanding and practice of vision within congregations. First, it implies vision comes from the pastor. Second, it…
Rural churches struggle as resources flow to urban churches
By Brian Kaylor It’s not easy being a small, rural church in America today. Denominations sometimes focus more resources on bigger, urban congregations. And luring a pastor to the boondocks is a major challenge. “Many seminary graduates will not even…
Why multiethnic? Imagining together
To start out our conversation on multiethnic church, I did some work around clarifying terms of “multicultural’ vs. ‘multiethnic’. Because these terms are often used interchangeably, I wanted to posit our discussion around ethnicity or ethnos as the central theme…
If your congregation is not already affiliated with a denomination, why would it?
By George Bullard Recently a long-term ministry acquaintance contacted me for advice about his congregation. He had retired from his religious publishing position and moved to the other side of the country. During his life he had been a member…
Pastors are only one of five keys to visionary leadership
By George Bullard Often congregations put high pressure on their senior or solo pastor to be the originator of vision. It is a classic statement, and by no means an urban legend, that laypersons will say when a church is…
The contested BGAV presidency
Note: I don’t normally write things on this blog that are so narrowly focused (Virginia Baptist life to be exact), but this is incredibly important to me, and it is a prime example of how rural churches and female pastors…
The 4 realities of 21st century religious life
By Alan Rudnick The Pew Research Center released its 2015 U.S. Religious Landscape Study and it can be confusing to read. According to The Atlantic, it can be challenging to interpret the massive data dump of spiritual information because of…
Why we need pastor-theologians for leading churches in mission
Anyone doing the work of planting churches will meet unpredictable cultural challenges. By definition, you are going into uncharted turf. You will have to listen, encounter new issues, interpret, translate and engage in ways you never would have to in…