QC Family Tree is an intentional Christian community forming relationships and seeking justice alongside residents of the Enderly Park neighborhood of Charlotte, N.C. Since 2005, co-directors Greg and Helms Jarrell have called the Queen City home and sought wholeness with…
Uh-oh, American church: Here comes Gen Z
Congregational and worship consultants are practically guaranteed job security in the coming decades thanks to the coming of Generation Z, aka Gen Z. Experts anticipate that churches which have long used coaches, books and seminars just to tread water with Millennials will be even more challenged by that up-and-coming group whose older members are just reaching college age.
How to keep youth engaged with church and faith? Pay them.
Frustration transformed into innovation for a Washington State youth minister tired of losing young people to other activities and smartphones. His solution: pay them. It all started for Matt Overton with a growing trend of absenteeism in his youth group…
Church in the Age of Trump
Depending on who you talk to, last Wednesday morning we either woke up to a different world or we woke up to a depressingly predictable one. While none of the pollsters or aggregators really saw the results of this election…
Teens may not be lazy after all, new study shows
Those lazy kids. It’s a centuries old refrain that’s become popular in recent years as faith leaders look for the causes of church decline. But new research suggests teenagers may not be as much to blame as many think. It…
CBF leader charged with shaping Fellowship’s ‘young Baptist ecosystem’
Devita Parnell is no stranger to the occasional confusion and curiosity elicited by sharing her job title with others: young Baptist ecosystem manager for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “One time I mentioned my title to a woman at church and…
Be who you needed …
By Aileen Lawrimore “Be who you needed when you were younger.” This meme, trending in social media, offers a great reminder to those of us who may have forgotten the struggles of our younger years; it’s also a great suggestion…
‘Inside Out’ asserts children are stronger than we think
There is a wonderful line in To Kill a Mockingbird. After Atticus and Jem return from a visit to the Robinson home, where Atticus is called an ugly name, Atticus looks at his son, Jem and says, “There’s a lot…
8 topics that ought to be on every youth minister’s agenda
One of the hardest jobs in a church these days is that of youth minister. Not just because the schedule of activities can be grueling or the work can be physically demanding. The reason, instead, is ever-increasing demands placed on…