I began college in the fall of 2006 as a pre-med honors student with an undeclared major, an ambivalent relationship to religion, and a less-than-positive attitude about the entire affair. I wanted to go somewhere big, prestigious and, most importantly,…
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…
Incidental contact
Packing up a house is an archaeological expedition through the layers of a life in one place, not only because of the collections of things that have to be sorted and assigned a destination, but also because of the stories…
10 ways to increase value of and engagement in church participation, part 1
A noticeable and disturbing trend that is beginning to catch the attention of church consultants, coaches and denominational leaders is that believers are losing interest in church. Not only is there an avoidance of church by many unbelievers, there is…
the next right thing.
Quite often, over the course of numerous conversations unfolding inside the circled wagons of wounded American Evangelicalism, there develops this almost liturgically repetitious refrain amongst the faithful: our best years are behind us. Whether it’s wistfully recounting the size of…
Are Millennials different than Baby Boomers 40 years ago?
Back in the 1970s a lot of congregational prognosticators warned that the Church, in general, was in the process of losing a whole demographic generation known as Baby Boomers. Existing congregations, new congregations, and denominational approaches to ministry were losing…
Embrace the variety
I read a blog post recently that really got me thinking. In the post, fellow ABP blogger, Alan Rudnick advocates for services based on differing worship styles to be de-segregated, that is, to be replaced by blended services containing multiple worship expressions….
Feb. 9, 1964: the day the church changed never to go back again
Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014 was the 50th anniversary of The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The British musical invasion hit its first quality live prime time that day. It is also the day the Church in the United…
For Pete’s sake
My last sermon of 2013 was named after a Pete Seeger song – “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Based on a Ecclesiastes 3, it is a text that I’ve mostly used for funerals. I wanted an opportunity to use the song in…