Letter to the Editor June 17, 2022 Dear Editor: In a 2014 article in BNG, writer Marion Aldridge penned an excellent piece on pastoral search committees. According to the article, “Even a tiny, troubled Baptist church can get 100 resumes.”…
What could the church learn from Amazon?
In 1994, Jeff Bezos left a lucrative job as an investment banker on Wall Street to start a company selling books on a new technology called the internet. Two years later, I left a non-lucrative career in ministry and entered…
Zoom, zoom, zoom … Some pastors aren’t revved up for continued online church
It took a couple of years, but Elizabeth Mangham Lott finally hit her bottom with doing online church by the end of January. “Y’all, this Zoom church stuff is crushing me today. I don’t wanna do it. And I don’t…
7 signs it’s time to move on
As a full-time pastor for more than 25 years, I’ve never been without employment — until now. In December 2021, I stepped down as the senior pastor of my church without another ministry position or job of any kind. Leading…
12 cures for the hollow church
It’s been several years since the huge oak on the property of First Church came crashing down into the empty parking lot one Saturday night. A blast of straight-line winds proved more than the 250-year-old icon could withstand. The tree…
Most comprehensive study yet of COVID’s impact on churches finds uneven results
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline facing most congregations in America, but the effects are not evenly distributed among all churches, according to the most comprehensive study to date of the pandemic and congregational life. The “Exploring the Pandemic…
Silent majority, we need you now
Silent majority, I know you are kind-hearted people who just want to peacefully worship God and love others. We all want that. Silent majority, I know you had no idea this was going on in your church. You keep your…
Six ways to survive the fall of evangelicalism and the rise of emergence
Fall is my favorite time of year, and this year I find in it a metaphor for the current identity crisis within the evangelical church. Just as the leaves fall from the trees, so it seems that evangelicalism is falling…
Pastors in a no-win situation
“How many people should I be visiting a month?” I asked them. They blinked at me, confused by the question. “What I’m asking is, what will satisfy you? Is it 10 people? Twenty?” “Well,” she asked, “how many are on…