The stakes couldn’t be higher. If churches get this wrong, people will die. People we know and love, people we have never met, folks that count on the church to do the right thing. Yet pressures are mounting to open now.
Engaging online worshipers key to boosting discipleship during pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a time of learning for churches as they adjust to virtual ministry, said Andy Jung, associate executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina.
The time is now: Born-again Christians need to make some babies
The Holy Spirit is conceiving new life and needs a partner. The Church, the body of Christ, is called to be born again and again and again. May we be a body in the infancy of innovative growth, a body vulnerable and yet powerful as the Church enters an unknown future full of new possibilities.
Is the pandemic-era church a church without baptisms, funerals and other major rituals?
“I have to ask myself: am I doing anything I was called to do when I became a pastor?”
The Commander-of-Church-in-Chief
President Trump is running scared, and understandably so. His press room appearance to demand the reopening of houses of worship is proof positive. Without the so-called white evangelical vote, he has no chance at reelection.
Rebuilding the foundations of ‘The City on the Hill’: the shadow side of American exceptionalism
If we are to rebuild the foundations of this “City on a Hill,” we must work with all people of good will, those of all religions, races and economic classes, to follow the counsel of Micah to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
What if Americans go looking for spiritual renewal and our churches are too troubled to help?
I find myself in awe of the clergy and laity offering frontline care of souls in response to COVID-19, lovingly creating ministry alternatives, even from a distance. While these acts of selflessness are themselves a dramatic sign of spiritual renewal, sobering trends confront America’s churches.
The church that returns from lockdown will not be the church that left the building
We have learned some things about ourselves during these weeks as physically scattered churches. The poignant question may not be how will WE as the church emerge, but rather first how will I emerge? Or, what part(s) of the body am I now?
Without choirs or bands, churches seek to provide congregants with music virtually
While many churches have become more adept producing online services during the COVID-19 crisis, the music aspect of congregational worship is still a challenge to recreate virtually.