If you’re looking for the most religiously diverse counties in America, head to New York. If you’re looking for the least religiously diverse counties in America, head to Mississippi and Alabama. That’s the top-line takeaway from the most comprehensive documentation…
After talking with Bishop Curry, my goals for this summer are love, church, service and kindness
I love summer. In fact, I love everything about summer. Last summer didn’t seem like normal as we battled the effects of COVID. But this year, as we get ready for the long, hot days, some things come to mind….
How Karl Barth speaks to our post-pandemic needs
The pandemic has changed us. At a minimum, the last 15 months have awakened us to our vulnerabilities. So as the post-pandemic world begins to peek over the horizon, we’ve also become painfully aware of the deepening and widening division…
We need a new set of metrics for the spiritual life
I recently found this photo of my mom standing with my sisters and me on an Easter Sunday morning around 1964. Aside from my stunning fashion statement, I want to point out the Bible firmly grasped in my right hand….
On the wings of prayers that are mute
In a time not that long ago, I would have been seated in a church pew or standing behind a pulpit delivering a sermon. This morning, I’m not at church and it does feel strange, although there are reasons. My wife,…
‘We’re done educating you’
His words brought me up short. Gregg Neel is co-pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, Ore. He was our guest on our weekly webinar, talking about how his church has decided to come out of the pandemic accelerating into…
After spiritual trauma, finding welcome in church once more
Growing up, the church always was a safe place for me. I grew up in the same small-town church my entire life, and a lot of our life revolved around the church. Sundays were filled with Sunday school and the…
Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention
Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…
How to shrink your church
There are few things in life one can guarantee. Nevertheless, here’s one for which I’m very close to issuing written guarantees. When your aspiration is to shrink your church, there’s one strategy that stands head and shoulders above all others….