Practicing Until We Need It
Sigh. It’s that time of year again.
By Amy Butler If your family is anything like mine, you probably recently engaged in the annual Thanksgiving tradition of sharing some things for which we are each thankful. It can be a tradition that lessens in meaning with its…
Giving Thanks: More Than a Holiday Slogan
Giving thanks is more than a holiday slogan. Like a catalyst, real gratitude re-shapes our attitude and reconfigures our personality. Elie Wiesel proposes that, “When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person…
Engaging ‘nones’ is challenging but possible, say church leaders
By Jeff Brumley American “nones”— people who claim no religious affiliation — come with a variety of stories. Some were raised without any religious education at all. Most of them have few opinions on faith and wouldn’t know the Bible…
On megachurches, Millennials and modernism
In my hometown there is a church. This church has a sanctuary. A steeple. A large staff of religious professionals. A jet. A hashtag campaign for each sermon series. A fleet of boats. A “membership” of over 8,000. And at…
Weekly communion heals, unites N.C. church and community
By Jeff Brumley It was back around 2008, during a monthly Friday Lenten service at First Baptist Church on Highland Avenue in Winston-Salem, N.C., that Pastor Darryl Aaron made an unsettling observation. “The economy was real bad, tilting into the…
Lessons on Community from a Solitary Walk in the Woods
I had the opportunity recently to go up to Crossroads Camp and Conference Center in Lowesville, VA for the Gathering of Silence hosted by the Virginia Baptist Epiphany Institute of Spirituality and sponsored by the WMU of Virginia. This week…
You’ve met the ‘nones.’ Now meet the ‘dones.’
By Jeff Brumley It figures. Just as churches, seminaries and congregational consultants were wrapping their heads around the concept of “the nones” in religious life, yet another term emerges for yet another category of Americans abandoning the church: “the dones.”…
Evangelism implosion
By Bill Wilson It’s time to talk about the obvious: We have a problem with evangelism. Let me explain what I mean. • “We”: All of us, regardless of theology, denomination, setting or worship style are struggling with this issue….
Humblebragging — a double technical foul
By John Chandler False modesty is as old as humanity itself — see the fate of Haman in the biblical story of Esther. But give credit to comedian Harris Wittels, writer for the NBC series Parks and Recreation, whose Twitter…
Has church become a fairytale?
By Seth Vopat “My dog,” one replied. Another said, “Beauty and the Beast.” Agreeing with the first response, another responded, “My dog.” “I think the couple in the movie The Fault in Our Stars,” someone else said. The question: Does…
Balancing a congregation’s spiritual diet
By Doyle Sager Is your congregation receiving all its spiritual vitamins and minerals? We all know how crucial a balanced physical diet is; our spirits also need a healthy mixture of “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). But before…