Susan Rogers serves as church planter and pastor of The Well at Springfield in Jacksonville, Florida. The Well at Springfield is self-described as “a community of faith seeking to practice the way of Jesus together by loving God, our neighbor,…
Church matters
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved church. About the only thing I ever resisted was singing in the children’s choir because I considered the robes with their big floppy bows as an affront to my eight-year-old…
At what speed should congregations move?
As we enter 2013, at what speed is your congregation moving? I believe congregations should move at the speed of the leading edge 20 percent of the people in the congregation who are the proactive, positive, and passionate leaders; that…
Amanda died the other day, but her singing continues
Almost four decades ago while I was serving as pastor of an inner city congregation near a Baptist seminary, I would often have seminary students visit to see if they could obtain some ministry experience as a volunteer with our…
Middle-aged youth
When the mother of a lifelong friend died, we came to pay our respects. As sometimes happens, the post-service family visitation became an impromptu youth group reunion. Great hugs and greetings were exchanged as we reconnected with some of those…
They lost me when they said this was not a letter about AIDS
Back in the 1980s when the world was still trying to figure out how to get a handle on the pandemic of AIDS, I came home from work one day and had a letter from the American Red Cross. I…
What do you get when you focus on conflict? More conflict!
I’m sure you have probably heard the old adage that says Baptists are like alley cats. You know what you get when cats fight an alley on Saturday night? More cats. Conflict is similar to this because the more you…
Worship wars are about distance not style
I continue to hear of worship wars and rumors of worship wars. If you are still battling worship wars in your congregation, you may be in conflict over the wrong issue. Worship wars are not really about the style of…
Looking forward to November 7
Election Day is a day away and living in a battleground state feels like being the lone bachelor on a reality show in which contestants fight over you. I have received more phone calls, mailings, and emails begging for my…