Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Wednesday's Catch: 'Behind the Decline: Unraveling the Forgotten Reasons of Fading Neighborhood Churches' And More


Behind the Decline: Unraveling the Forgotten Reasons of Fading Neighborhood Churches
The white flight of churches was horrid, but it alone does not explain the decline of neighborhood churches. More was at play and is still affecting neighborhood churches.

Repurposing Your Space
As you look out on the landscape of your community from the perspective of your small church perch, you might have asked, “What can we do to help the community?” The one thing a faltering church typically has is space: empty classrooms, parking lots, education buildings, or offices. How can your local church leverage that area to help the community?

7 Ways to Help Your Church Engage in Hispanic Heritage Month
As churches celebrate Hispanic heritage, instead of merely committing to a single month, make it a year-round endeavor.

11 Tips for Prioritizing Family in the Never-Ending Work of Ministry
How can I balance ministry and family? It’s a question that burns in the hearts of a lot of pastors and ministry workers. Until Jesus returns, the work of ministry is never finished. There’s always another person to reach and another sermon to preach. If you let it, your ministry will overtake all of your time with your family.

4 Reasons Fitness Matters for Your Ministry
Lessons learned from Greg Stiers' "out-of-shape" days.

3 Habits Every Youth Leader Needs to Succeed
How to structure your life for long-lasting ministry impact.

Beware the Corrosive Quest for Respectability
Few things are worse for the individual Christian’s soul—and the broader Christian witness—than the quest for cultural acceptance. To consciously pursue credibility among the “cool” and applause from the cosmopolitan elite is, almost always, a step in the direction of theological compromise and spiritual atrophy.

Self Assessment: Are You Like Christ?
Here is Joe McKeever's list of ten signs–indicators, markers–that we are growing in Christ, that we are getting it right.

Does Evangelism Objectify People?
We live in an increasingly pluralistic society. Ironically, it tends to celebrate diverse religious views while criticizing attempts at religious conversion. Critics accuse evangelism of objectifying the people it seeks to convert. What should Christians make of this claim?

Riding a wave of converts, one group aims to fuse Orthodoxy with Southern values
At the group’s inaugural event, the majority of attendees appeared to represent the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, though few were ‘cradle’ Orthodox Christians.
The Russian Orthodox Church has close ties to Moscow, the Kremlin and the Russian government. It is not surprising to find supposedly semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia promoting pro-Russian views among a disaffected segment of the US population, which is already pro-Russian in its leanings.
Episcopal Church lost over 90K members in 2022, but worship attendance increased: report
The Episcopal Church saw a decline of over 90,000 members in 2022, but also witnessed a considerable increase in Sunday worship attendance, according to a new report.

Evangelical Christian numbers on the rise in Spain
An update from the Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain has shone a light on the changing face of religious belief in the European nation, revealing some of the challenges and opportunities facing Christians in the traditionally Catholic country.

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