Smart churches call 911 sooner rather than later
On a pleasant morning a few years ago at a church preschool, a 3-year-old boy fell backwards off a piece of playground equipment and hit his head. It was no one’s fault. It just happened. His symptoms...
View ArticleWho left on those lights? That electricity costs the church money!
During a recent research visit with a congregation, I was waiting in the hall for the pastor to finish a conversation with a staff person before we began our dialogue. A well-dressed older...
View ArticleWhich six pastors best represent Baptist preachers? A review of Joel...
Four years ago Joel Gregory, Professor of Preaching at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, was commissioned by the Baptist World Alliance to study representative Baptist...
View ArticleAre church camps, conference centers going away?
What is your most memorable experience at a church camp or conference center? Write it down quickly before these camps and conference centers disappear. My first remembrance of Ridgecrest Conference...
View ArticleIs the church too busy attending meetings and talking with itself?
All my life I have loved attending denominational celebration events and conventions. I love least the formal meetings. I love most the networking. I love seeing my friends in ministry and meeting new...
View ArticleGarrison Keillor got it right about children
My wife has an acrylic paperweight which was given to her some years ago. Etched into it is the quote popularized by Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame that says, “Nothing you do for...
View ArticleA seminary finds a golden gateway. Others find a rusted exit.
A couple of days after the announcement that the deal to sell the property and buildings of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary had been completed, I was in San Francisco. Sunday afternoon I drove...
View ArticleNeeded: Christian ministers who do the stuff
A dramatic story—perhaps an urban legend—about John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, relates to something that happened following his conversion to Christianity around 1963. It is...
View ArticleThat’s between me and God (and God ain’t talkin’)
What’s going on when you ask a Christian about a specific practice of discipleship in their life and they say, “That is between me and God”? Perhaps nothing unusual. Or, perhaps a whole bunch of...
View ArticleAre 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,...
View ArticleWhen pastors live out the mission and vision of their church . . .
. . . it is a thing of great beauty. Recently I spent a couple of days with Samuel Tolbert, the pastor/teacher of Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church in Lake Charles, LA. [See the church at...
View ArticleShallow congregations only take off their shoes and socks
Since they only plan to wade into the shallow end of the pool, or a few feet into the river, lake or ocean, the typical congregational participant only needs to remove their shoes and socks. And we are...
View ArticleHow Hurricane Hugo broke the racial barrier
Twenty-five years ago on September 21, 1989 Hurricane Hugo made landfall in the Charleston, SC area and brought significant destruction in almost two dozen counties. At that time I was working for...
View ArticleGreat Commission and Great Commandment without synergy?
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001? I do too. That is a morning very difficult to forget. I was sitting in the lobby restaurant of a hotel in a...
View ArticleIf spiritual gifts are from God, why do they make you uncomfortable?
Many years ago when walking down the hall in the building where I worked, I decided I would stop by Ken’s office and ask about him. It was discovered several months earlier that Ken had a growth behind...
View ArticleDoes anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a...
View ArticleThis kind of denomination IS dead
Anyone who has followed my lifelong trek through the maze of denominational staff service, and consulting and coaching with denominational organizations, knows that I believe in denominations. I also...
View ArticleThe secret to congregational vitality revealed
The secret is really not a secret. It is well known by many congregational leaders. But, they do not accept it because they are looking for a magic act that brings quick vitality without deep...
View ArticleSoar past tithing on your way to becoming wildly generous
Should we forget tithing? Is it passé? Does it set up an artificial target on which too few people actually agree? Tithing seems like an obvious principle–10 percent of your income–yet too often it...
View ArticleDenominations Now Provide Fewer Resources for Congregations
[This is the second in a series of posts about the transformation occurring in denominations in North America. The first several posts are about things no longer part of denominations—at least to the...
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