Thursday's Catch: The COVID-19 Pandemic and In-Person Religious Services and More

Study: This Is How Americans Are Feeling About In-Person Worship

As the debate continues about what COVID-19 precautions people should feel compelled to take, a recent survey from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has found that most Americans say they would be uncomfortable attending in-person religious services. There is one religious group more comfortable with in-person worship than others, however—white evangelical Protestants. Read More

A number of evangelical website, I have noticed, in the articles and podcasts they post are in subtle ways (and at times not so subtle ways) pushing gathered worship even though the COVID-19 pandemic is surging in a number of states. At least one church that is associated with one of these websites resumed gathered worship without what I would consider adequate precautionary measures in place. These websites, while they promote caution in regathering, nonetheless stress the importance of gathered worship. That prompts me to wonder if theological considerations are outweighing safety considerations in regathering decision-making. It could be a blind spot for these websites.

Dream City Church That Hosted Trump Rally Backtracks on Safety Claim

After receiving widespread criticism, Arizona megachurch Dream City Church and the maker of an air-filtration system the church both walked back claims about preventing the spread of COVID-19. Phoenix-based Dream City Church, which hosted a Students for Trump rally on Tuesday, had been plugging a system from Clean Air EXP, saying it can kill “99 percent of COVID within 10 minutes.” Read More

I wonder how many of the young people who signed waivers releasing the Trump Campaign from any liability in the event that they became sick or died out of the mistaken notion that they would be safe from virus infection in this particular venue and that young people develop only mild symptoms if they contract the virus. A number of young people have become extremely ill, required hospitalization, and even died after they contracted the virus. They have also spread the virus to Americans who may be more vulnerable than themselves.

4 Characteristics of a Healthy Church Culture

What are the characteristics of a church with a healthy culture? Let’s look at four of them. Read More

How Often should Preachers Practice their Sermon?

I’ve served in ministry over 39 years and I’ve preached a lot of sermons. Some have been good and some, well, not so good. Three factors have made the biggest positive difference for me: preparing my heart before the Lord, scheduling adequate study time to avoid feeling rushed, and practicing preaching my sermon. In this blog I suggest a few benefits from practice and describe my practice/preparation process (pre-COVID....). Read More

5 Ways to Get People to pay Attention to Your Sermons

One of the most disconcerting feelings we pastors experience is when we prepare a sermon and pour our heart into it, yet feel that it didn’t make a difference in people’s lives. It’s equally frustrating when we preach to see somebody tuning us out. What can we do to help people pay more attention to our sermons? For when they do, there’s a greater chance what we say will stick in their minds to give the Holy Spirit time to ultimately change their hearts. Here are some neuroscience-based tips. Read More

7 Considerations for Updating Your Kids Ministry Policies Now

The COVID-19 pandemic has given kids ministry leaders a lot of uncharted waters to navigate, but it has also provided opportunities to review and revise what we do and how we do it. Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to reintegrate (or integrate for the first time) children into the Sunday and other worship gatherings of the local church instead of separating them in their own children's services and to make the Sunday and other worship gatherings of the local church more child-friendly. The pandemic has created an opportunity for children to become accustomed to worship with adults and adults to become more accustomed to worshiping with children. It has also created an opportunity for children to be exposed to the faith of a larger segment of the congregation of the local church than that of a handful of volunteers. As far back as the 1970s it was discovered that children who were relegated to their own children's services had a difficult time in making the transition to the adult services of the church when it came time for them to make that transition. When they became teenagers, they drifted away from the church in search of a worship experience like the one they had experienced as children or they dropped out of church altogether.