Thursday's Catch: 'Faithful Christian Organizations: A Better Way to Stay on Course' And More

Faithful Christian Organizations: A Better Way to Stay on Course

For any organisation to lose sight of its mission is regrettable. But if the organization’s mission has something to do with the person and mission of Jesus, it’s not just regrettable; it’s tragic. And yet it happens. All. The. Time.

Local churches suffer from mission drift just like other Christian organization. Among the reasons for the losss of interest in Christianity and the decline in church attendance in the United States and Canada is mission drift and its effects upon the life, ministry, and worship of the local church.

A Promise of Provision: 4 Benefits of Embracing an Abundance Mentality
Rejecting scarcity thinking and adopting an abundance mentality produces at least four life-changing results as you lead your church or ministry.

Look to Proverbs for Leadership Training
Leaders are learners, and great leaders are constantly seeking wisdom from those who have gone before them.

Preaching from a Place of Fullness
The contrast at the heart of this post is between periods of ministry where one’s reserves are low, and periods of ministry where the heart feels at capacity with the glory of God and the loveliness of Christ. They are starkly different experiences.

Appalachian Music Meets Anglican Liturgy in East Tennessee
Guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, and harmonica often ring out alongside the organ and piano from the 1861 brick building in the historic district of Elizabethton, Tennessee. In recent years, St. Thomas Episcopal Church has focused on integrating bluegrass music into the Anglican liturgy, and the resonance of the two traditions has helped revitalize the parish, says its rector, the Rev. Timothy Holder.

Every region has its own particular music culture and in employing its music in services of public worship and other church gatherings a local church can build bridges with the community and reflect the community more closely. One of my favorite settings for the gospel acclamation--the alleluia sung to herald the reading of the Gospel at the Holy Eucharist is Timothy Fish's "Happy Land Alleluia." Fish composed service music for Roman Catholic parishes in Appalachia, using America folk hymn tunes with which the parishioners were familiar. The tune of this particular setting is the tune of the hymn, "There Is a Happy Land." In the region of Kentucky in which I live shaped-note hymns and songs have a long history. A neighboring town is the home of the Southern Harmony Big Sing, in which I have had the pleasure of participating.

Got Reverence? Try Minor-Key Songs on Sunday.
So many of us want God to be our friend but not our sovereign. We accept his transcendence, but we love his immanence.

How to Write Dynamic Agendas for Your Home Groups
Watch a bird in flight, and you will notice the two wings do not flap randomly; they are in perfect sync with one another. The cell church is often called a “two-winged” church, able to reach new heights because of the connection of its large-group and small-group wings. Just as in the early church, a synergy combines the dynamic of corporate gatherings and the intimate sharing of home groups (Acts 2:42-47).

Keeping Up With the Harvest
At Worship Harvest Church in Uganda, missional communities are literally front and center. Most weeks during Sunday morning worship, a different missional community group of five to 30 people takes the stage, and one or more of its leaders tell a story of God at work through the group.

Why Some People Aren’t Christians 

In this article Tim Challies shares four reasons he has found why people do not become Christians.

3 in 5 US workers fear sharing religious views in the workplace: survey
Nearly two-thirds of employed adults in the United States believe that respectfully explaining their political or religious beliefs at work can result in negative repercussions, according to a new report.

Christians are often unwilling to share their religious beliefs regardless of whether there might be negative repercussions because they have internalized the cultural attitude that religion is a private matter and adherents of a particular religion should keep their religious beliefs to themselves and not to talk about them, much less proselytize other people. This is particularly true of the younger generations.