[Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts on the overly churched culture congregation. To see the full series go to Author Archives: George Bullard.] The first transitional action an overly churched culture church can take to bring…
Choose ye this day diversity
A strong, natural, cultural tendency among humankind—even those committed to loving all people—is to be in community with those considered to be “our kind of people”. The tendency is to swarm with people with whom there is the least diversity…
The non-churched people the overly churched culture doesn’t know
[Note: This is the third in a series of posts on the overly churched culture congregation. To see the full series go to Author Archives: George Bullard.] For overly churched culture congregations to connect with non-churched culture people, they need…
What makes a Christmas card a Christmas card?
Since about 10 days before Thanksgiving, our festive household has received a regular collection of colorful greeting cards appropriate for the various holidays that occur during the last six weeks of the year. The first to come were the greetings…
Can congregations stuck in an overly churched culture change?
[Note: This is a follow-up post to Many Congregations Are Stuck in an Overly Churched Culture] The Situation Congregations where 30 percent or more of the active membership is at least 60 years old, and they have been professing Christians…
A call for Christian collaboration
As of Friday, November 8, 2013 various Christian disaster response organizations were rushing to prepare their response to the Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines. In some cases they were moving forward alone feeling they could respond best by using their…
Congregations need sabbatical and jubilee
Congregations need a hopeful learning season that will help them see the same things they have seen for many years in a different way. This gives them insight into what it will take to continually transform congregational life. Likely this…
They want their next pastor to do what?
Beyond the ability to be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, what else do congregations want from their next senior or solo pastor? At the request…
Lessons about church conflict from the government shutdown
Now that the USA government shutdown is over–at least for a while–let’s reflect on the lessons churches can learn from the shutdown about conflict. Many of these are lessons of what not to do. These lessons are also politically neutral….