COVID-19 has not just strained many people’s resilience and personal faith, pushing many to their limits. One of the ways research has found that the church is a powerful source of resilience is through community. Yet, because of COVID-19, when we’ve needed community the most, it’s been more difficult to experience. This has not only taken a toll on people’s mental health, but also spiritual health. Here are some spiritual truths that are important to remember according to Scripture and science for cultivating resilience as we continue to navigate COVID-19 adversity.
A New Term: Omnichannel Church
Last week Dave Adamson wrote a compelling article on the future of the church based on the digital tools that church leaders now have at their disposal. He applied the term “omnichannel” to church practice, and his article was the first time I have seen someone do so. Dave does this type of work with churches, so he was not just winging it and throwing out an idea. If you have background in ecommerce or marketing, you are familiar with the term “omnichannel.” It represents the thinking that a company should align all of its channels so that a customer has a seamless experience across all. In other words, the customer could easily flow back and forth between a physical store and an online store and other touch points.
The Strength Gen Z Christians Need
Today’s generation of young people is more anxious, more depressed, and less Christian than ever before. What is causing this? In the latest installment of our brand-new TGC Talks series, Chris Colquitt—campus minister for Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Northwestern University—explores how safetyism and fragility are hazards to Generation Z’s mental health and spiritual health.
Respecting Gas Station Attendants and the Importance of Toilet Shoes
I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer with *Darius, one of the faithful local men who is a part of our church plant. Darius has a wonderful gifting – that of a person who is becoming truly bicultural. People like him are able to function well in two or more very different cultural settings without rejecting either culture. They make great students if their teacher is, like me, from another culture. They also make wonderful teachers themselves, since they still deeply value their home culture and are willing to explain it. It’s no coincidence that 1st Corinthians 9, “becoming all things to all men” has been a passage Darius keeps coming back to lately. All this has made him a lifesaver when it comes to the holes in our cultural knowledge that we still have, even as we approach six years in this context. Here are some of the things we’ve recently learned from him.
US culture is not homogenous. Knowing the local culture can help us to reach and engage people in a particular locality.Intergenerational Worship is NOT....
It seems like whenever the topic of intergenerational or multigenerational worship gets brought up, a lot of concerns and assumptions start being expressed. Recently, someone directed some comments towards me that included many of those assumptions such as, “Intergenerational worship doesn’t meet the developmental needs of children and/or adults” and “Kids need to have their own space” and “We can’t dumb down the service just so kids can be there.” Each of these concerns is fraught with a backdrop of suppositions and presumptions about what it could mean to have all ages gather for a time of corporate worship. And rather than address each of these individually, I thought I’d share some thoughts regarding what intergenerational worship is not and what intergenerational worship is.
The Unifying Power of Singing
Corporate singing is back, even if it remains cloth-covered in many churches (including mine), and reintroducing it to people who have not sung for nearly eighteen months is vitally important. Why? A couple of nights ago I had the chance to speak to our worship team, and I tried to answer that question, specifically by explaining why song is such a unifying expression of worship. Singing unites five things which are often separated from one another, and the result is beautiful.
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