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Friday, October 25, 2024

Friday's Catch: 'Archbishop Steve Wood on where the ACNA has been, and where it's headed' And More


Archbishop Steve Wood on where the ACNA has been, and where it's headed
A week ahead of his investiture, or formal installation, in South Carolina on Oct. 30, Wood spoke to RNS.
Doing away with affinity networks in the ACNA would be short-sighted. Genuine affinity networks are based upon shared views on key issues and the like, and permit networks of clergy and congregations with disparate views to coexist amicably in the same ecclesial body.
After 24 years of adaptive ministry, Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe faces biggest challenge yet
Two decades ago, the future of The Episcopal Church looked grand, ambitious and much bigger.
Two decades ago, the Episcopal Church was shaken by the election, confirmation, and consecration of the first openly gay bishop in a major Christian denomination believing in the historic episcopate. Among the consequences was a sharp decline in church attendance in my former diocese, the closure of what had been a flourishing new church plant, the slow death of a second church plant, the reduction of a thriving new parish to subsidized mission status, and four years later the reduction of my former parish, once the fastest growing Episcopal church in the diocese, also to mission status.
How to Handle Governance in Multisite Churches
Jim Tomberlin is often asked what is the best governance model for a multisite church. His answer is the same for any healthy church or organization—one that works!

9 Questions to Ask if Your Church Giving is in Decline
Stewardship expert Joe Park says churches can promote more generous giving by better communicating the impact of their ministry, encouraging recurring electronic gifts, and challenging people to grow in generosity as part of their discipleship. He shares nine questions to help your church assess whether your giving strategy meets the mark.

7 Mistakes Pastors Make in a New Church Job
Getting a new church job can be scary. And pastors often overlook pitfalls in those new jobs. In this post, adapted from his book on on-boarding for pastors, Charles Stone list 7 pitfalls pastors must avoid in a new church job.

Great Leaders Are Great Listeners
In most of our thinking about great leadership, we often skip over one particular characteristic that has a surprising influence on a leader’s ability to lead better… great leaders are great listeners.

How Church Leaders Are Aiming for Higher Biblical Literacy
Increased biblical literacy only comes through increased immersion in God’s Word. How can you help your church invest in biblical literacy?

Seminary, parish, five dioceses each receive more than $1 million in Lilly Endowment grants
Five Episcopal dioceses, a parish and a seminary have received grants of more than $1 million each through the Lilly Endowment Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. This initiative is aimed at supporting creative endeavors that help children, especially those up to age 12, come to know and love God and grow in faith, according to its website.

CBF receives $1.25 million grant to nurture children
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has received a $1.25-million grant from the Lilly Endowment for an initiative on inclusive children’s ministry. The grant will equip churches to be safe places inclusive of children — especially children with disabilities — and to use creative arts in worship and prayer practices to teach children, birth to 12 years old.

Does Your Church Need to Repent for the Nursery?
In this article Dan Crabtree seeks to offer one note of sympathy with the Family Interate Church (FIC) movement – namely, the goodness of having kids in the church service – and then register a biblical argument for the value of the nursery all the same. The reason for this approach is to show that 1) it’s not incompatible for churches with kids’ ministries to prioritize parental discipleship and 2) to show that nurseries are not only borne out of pagan pragmatism.

15 Bible Study Topics That Will Engage Your Youth Ministry
Bible study topics for youth help teens engage in life-changing conversations about faith. When choosing subjects to teach, consider what resonates with kids’ lives and experiences.

Tell-Show-Help-Watch Discipeship
In the pursuit of effective discipleship within Christian ministry, the Neuroscience Informed Relational Discipleship principle of “Tell-Show-Help-Watch” emerges as a transformative approach that bridges the gap between cognitive understanding and relational experiences. This model not only aligns with but deeply integrates psychological insights with spiritual formation, emphasizing the necessity of whole-brain integration for lasting character change and spiritual growth.

Why We Need to Think Like Missionaries
Our culture is a mission field. We must see ourselves as people on mission. This is not our home. This is our mission field. Therefore, we all must see our vocations as mission—as kingdom work.

10 Tips for Hosting A Live Nativity
A live Nativity can be an engaging, heart-warming event not only for church members but for the entire community as well. One Houston-area church has decades of experience bringing the Christmas story to life in this way. Lindsay Peyton shares their organizational and planning tips.
Key to the success of a live nativity is its location, the availability of funds, and the level of interest of the community. For several years the UMC Cluster in the county where I live hosted a live nativity. Last year it opted to put a float in the annual Christmas parade instead of hosting a live nativity. Why? The venue where it had hosted the live nativity in the past was no longer available. Attendance at the previous year's nativity had declined from past years, and the cluster did not have the funds to host a live nativity at a new venue.

Image Credit: Anglican Church  in North America; RNS 

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