Wednesday's Catch: 'Is Revival Here Now?' And More

Is Revival Here Now?
In July, I wrote about the news of some members of Gen Z coming back to church. Gen Z is still less religious as a generation than prior generations, but there are early signs of a shift. Given the much-publicized downward trends in church attendance over the past two decades, this is welcome news. As a result, some people are wondering if these are signs of revival.

However, the truth is if you have to ask if there’s a revival, there’s not a revival. In other words, if there were a revival, you’d know.

What is Your Parish’s Top Priority?
While it is incontrovertible that the love of Jesus binds us to serve the poor and broken, it is also pellucid that the social gospel is a byproduct of the Great Commission. Put differently, Jesus did not say, “Go and make social workers” but rather “Go and make disciples.”

3 Ways Churches Get Discipleship Wrong
Here are three root issues that can contribute to discipleship ranking among the weakest ministries in our churches.

How to Train Your Church for Evangelism (Without a Guilt Trip)
Church evangelism training has a reputation problem. For many people in the pews, the phrase triggers memories of awkward scripts, pressure-filled altar calls, or sermons that quietly imply they’re failing Jesus if they haven’t led a stranger to faith this week. That kind of approach doesn’t produce lasting fruit. It produces anxiety, avoidance, and eventually disengagement. If you want your church to grow in evangelism, the goal isn’t guilt. It’s confidence, clarity, and love.

Discipleship and evangelism are inseparable.

Digital curiosity about faith surges as Christians dominate online activity
New research suggests that interest in faith is increasingly playing out online, with Christianity emerging as the most active religious community on major social media platforms.

The study, carried out by Christian jewellery company MyCross, examined how different world religions are searched, shared, and discussed across the internet.

Church Closures Eclipse Openings in the U.S.
In 2024, Lifeway Research estimates 3,800 new Protestant churches were started in the U.S., but analysis points to 4,000 church closures.

The Trouble with Watching Religious Trends
We evangelicals tend to get too enamored with religious trends, both the encouraging ones and the discouraging. We read too much into data that confirms our hopes or validates our fears.

There are at least three reasons we should hold these trends more loosely.

Right questions to ask as the new year begins
Pastors and other church leaders can feel a sense of fulfillment in the completion of the year just ended. The tendency of many is to put the past year behind and turn all thoughts and energy to the unfolding of the plans for the new year. However, the early days and weeks of the new year provide an appropriate time to use a few right questions to look back and learn from your most recent past. The goal is to discover clues so that the new year will be more fruitful than the past. In the questions below, I hope you will see at least one that you know will likely provide information pertinent to your church’s situation. Engage others among your leaders to see what next steps your church can take this year.

From vision to action: Adaptive planning for uncertain times
You spent three months writing the strategic plan. The leadership team spent six meetings arguing about mission statements and vision boards. You printed it on glossy paper. You preached about it for three Sundays. By February, it was in a drawer. By April, nobody remembered what it said.

You're not alone. And you're not failing.

Making Change in an Older Church (Without Running Over the Old Guard)
It can be particularly challenging for a pastor to lead change in an older church when the primary decision makers (or most of the members) have been in the church for several years, sometimes a few decades. Thom and Sam look at four developments that often take place when leading change is successful. They reviewed over 20 successful churches.

Methodists caught the car; now what?
As 2026 dawns, The United Methodist Church enters a new era much like a chasing dog that caught a passing car: Now that they’ve got it, what do they do with it?

Should We Sing Repetitive Songs in Church?
This question perennially raises a cloud of dust in the African church. Someone once said to me that he grew up singing repetitive songs at church until he became Reformed. Repetitive songs, he said, are not only considered biblically shallow by some but also galling by others. The discussion that follows is a reflection on this brief anecdote.

In this article, I argue that what makes a song shallow or sound is the presence or absence of substance; not necessarily its structure, repetitive or non-repetitive. To try and calm the dust, I will show that repetition, as a rhetorical device, isn’t substance; rather, repetition serves substance as modelled in the Psalms. But let’s begin with why I think repetition in church liturgy is a boon to believers.