Tuesday's Catch: "8 Dangers of ‘À la carte’ Christianity" And More

8 Dangers of ‘À la carte’ Christianity
Literally, “à la carte” means, “at or according to the menu”—and we’ve understood it to mean choosing what we want from a smorgasbord of options...Here are some dangers of that approach—dangers that might also signal if we’ve moved in this direction....

Creating a Positive Guest Experience ...the church’s message to the outside world should not conflict with the inside experience of a guest.

Leading From a Position of Peace
Jesus wants you to have peace, but He is the only one who can genuinely give it. As a pastor, how can you lead from a position of peace?

From Church Juice – Secrets of Great Church Websites
It’s now easier—and more cost effective—than ever to have a great looking church website. Despite that fact, the vast majority of church websites are in dire need of attention.

How a Healthy Small Group Prays: 5 Simple, Christ-Centered Practices
You can tell how Christ-centered a group is by how they pray.

5 Reasons Why Prayer Must Accompany Evangelism
Here’s why any outreach strategy must be grounded in prayer....

Don’t Overthink Cross-Cultural Evangelism
You must know your actual audience—not just who the books say is your audience—in order to engage with them.

55 Oklahoma Congregations Leave United Methodist Church
Fifty-five congregations in Oklahoma have disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church, joining a wave of churches departing the mainline Protestant denomination since last year. At a special called conference held on Saturday, delegates at the UMC Oklahoma Conference voted to recognize the disaffiliation votes of 55 congregations, representing over 10% of their 425 member churches.

To date the number of congregations that have disaffiliated from the UMC have not significantly reduced the number of congregations in the denomination. Whether it remains that way depends on the outcome of 2024 General Conference as UMC progressives push for a more liberal policy toward LGBTQ clergy and same sex marriage.

GAFCON IV: Lessons from a Communion in Birth Pains
Despite 25 years of persistent warnings by most Anglican primates, repeated departures from the authority of God’s word have torn the fabric of the Communion.

GAFCON has its own internal divisions as does the Anglican Church in North America. Having severed ties with Canterbury, we can expect these divisions to become more apparent and more pronounced.

Less than half of born-again Christians believe Jesus lived sinless life on Earth: study
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, fewer born-again Christians now say that Jesus lived a sinless life during his time on Earth, and church attendance has dropped by some 15 million people weekly, a new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows.

This study and other research point to the deterioration of core Christian beliefs in the self-identified Christian population of the United States. Their findings suggest that what Chuck Lawless describes as 'a la carte' Christianity may be the dominant form of Christianity in the United States, a development which does not bode well for the future of Christianity in this country.