Capitalizing on Christmas
Shared beliefs around Christmas can provide a foundation for moving someone beyond Jesus’s manger to His cross and empty tomb.
800 years of the traditional Nativity scene
Today, what we might call the "traditional Nativity scene" is a well-known feature of Christmas. It is found in churches, homes, even in some municipal settings. They come in different shapes, sizes, and appearances. The features are well known. In a stable, often with some straw scattered on the ground, the models of the Holy Family are placed centre stage. Jesus lies – swaddled – in a manger (an animal feeding trough) filled with hay.
Chasing the Past
Every church that has been opened more than a few years has set in motion “the way things have always been done.” The leadership team sets down markers for growth, spiritual renewal, programs, partnerships and precedents each year. Many of these are unintended and only come about because they fit the current reality that they are facing. But for leaders and members alike, it freezes what should or should not be done in time. “How we have always done it” sneaks up on churches and becomes set in stone overnight.
Americans urged to vaccinate again as new Covid variant JN.1 sparks huge surge in deaths
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that America is yet to see the worst of Covid this winter as a highly transmissible subvariant causes an uptick in deaths and hospitalizations across the country.
Churches can do a great service to their members and attendees and the public at large by encouraging church members and attendees to get immunized against flu, COVID-19, and RVS, particularly the more vulnerable members and attendees of the church.Advent Prepares Us for Mission
Advent is a time when Christians gather. However, Advent can also remind us how we’ve been called to scatter. In the Great Commission, Jesus sends his followers to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). We sometimes neglect to see that this mission is foreshadowed in Jesus’s birth narrative (Matt. 1–2). Mission didn’t begin at the end of Christ’s earthly work; instead, Jesus’s birth foreshadows that a mission to the nations was the purpose of his coming.
Is the Eucharistic Prayer Theater?
Calvin Lane draws attention to how for some Episcopalians what occurs during the Eucharistic Prayer has become a show, something to be watched.
One way to correct this misperception is to give the congregation a larger part in the eucharistic prayer which is the prayer of the whole assembly for which the presider acts as "tongue," as one early church father put it.5 Places to Find New Group Members
Need more people in your small group? Not sure where to find them? Surely, not everyone’s already in a group in your church? Where are they hiding? How can you find them? Don’t worry, sometimes Christians hide, and that’s ok, but we don’t want them to stay hidden. Other times, they’re looking for you too. Here are 5 places you can find new people to invite to your group.
Church for ‘nones’: Meet the anti-dogma spiritual collectives emerging across the US
These spiritual communities discard doctrine, prefer questions over answers and have no intention of converting anybody to anything.
These "spiritual collectives" are reminiscent of the atheist Sunday gatherings which were launched a few years ago.New study finds Christian nationalists to be more complex than media portrayals
Many Christian nationalists, the group Neighborly Faith found, espouse troubling views while simultaneously expressing openness to aspects of American pluralism.
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