Boston alone has lost approximately 45 buildings formerly owned by churches in recent decades. Storefronts that once held congregations are now dental offices, restaurants, and laundromats. The buildings are gone. The communities those churches served are still there.
The earthquake is not coming. It has already started.
The Coming Baby Boomer Cliff: What Happens in Churches When They Are Gone? Replay and Slides
If you missed the live webinar, you can watch the replay HERE and download the slides HERE.
This webinar and the accompanying slides you'll want to share with your church's leadership team.
10 Very Possible Reasons Your Church Isn’t Growing
Often problems whose origins seem mysterious to us are really not that mysterious to others. We just can’t see the truth.
The same is true for many of us who want our church to reach new people and are puzzled why that just isn’t happening.
Maybe it’s not as mysterious as you think. Sometimes attending church is hard.
South Carolina Calls for Greater Transparency in ACNA
As the Anglican Church in North America’s yearly governance meeting approaches, the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina has proposed resolutions seeking “justice and transparency” in the denomination, the diocese’s standing committee announced on May 15.
The ACNA’s Provincial Council is slated to meet in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 17-19 to conduct annual business and consider comprehensive reform to the church’s Title IV disciplinary canons.
‘Let’s Get This Thing Done’—Albert Mohler To Bring Motion at SBC Annual Meeting To Bar Women From Preaching
Dr. Albert Mohler, prominent theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced Monday (May 18) that he will propose a motion to amend the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to clarify women’s preaching and leadership roles in SBC churches.
This year’s SBC meeting will take place in Orlando, Florida, on June 9-10. Mohler will have an opportunity to present his motion Tuesday, June 9, during either the 9:35 a.m. or 3:45 p.m. new motions allotted time slots.
Is a split over the role of women in Christian ministry looming in the Southern Baptist Convention in the near future?Author debunks America’s ‘Christian past that wasn’t’
The audacity of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick only scratches the surface of the lies generations of Christian nationalists have been telling in order to remake America in their own religious image, according to Warren Throckmorton, author of The Christian Past that Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History.
Throckmorton, a retired psychology professor, also hosts “The Christian Past that Wasn’t” podcast.
Also See: Separation of Church and State Was a Baptist Idea. What Happened?'One Nation Under God?': 5 takeaways from RNS and NPR's '1A' live show
Host Niala Boodhoo was joined at the American University in Washington, D.C., by RNS national reporter Jack Jenkins, religious liberty lawyer and Muslim identity scholar Asma T. Uddin, Mark D. Hall of Regent University and Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center.
Prophets, Not Chaplains
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Kendal McBroom challenges church leaders to reconsider the relationship between faith, patriotism, and prophetic witness. At a time when many churches feel pressure to stay silent or safe, he asks what it means for pastors and congregations to choose justice over comfort and discipleship over nationalism.
White Americans oppose federal programs to spite other races: study
Research reveals that white people appear to support social safety net programs unless they perceive those programs as also helping nonwhites.
Christianity not a form but a force
Jesus’s followers needed the Ascension as both God’s final confirmation of Jesus’ identity and as the launch pad for their witness in the world. And so do we! We need an Ascension-scale vision of Christ to lift our eyes above the dark realities of our time and to determine the way we live.
Harry Emerson Fosdick told his congregation, “Amid the violent events of this warring world we need as wide horizons around our thinking as we can get. To see the eternal surrounding the temporal, the universal encompassing the local, helps to keep us steady and wise.” (GTBA p. 98) Based on Moffitt’s translation of Timothy’s words, “Though they keep up the form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force” (2 Timothy 3:5), Fosdick warned of “conventional acceptance of religion as a form, but with no corresponding experience of it as a force.” (GTBA, p. 89-90)
Being a Christian Is Not the Same As Being Religious
One of the interesting facts from early church history is that Christians were accused of being atheists.[1] They didn’t do the religious things that were expected by their contemporaries in the Roman world. That might be a surprise to many in the secular West, where Christians usually look obviously more religious than their secular neighbours. After all, Christians have faith, they pray, they attend worship services. Many go further by wearing crosses, carrying Bibles, fasting, and orientating their lives around priests, festivals, saints and pilgrimages.
As many of us witness an uptick in interest in religion, including Christianity, especially among young men, I wonder what these new inquirers are attracted to. Is it Jesus and his saving work? Or is it religion, with the trappings of symbols and rituals? Exploring why the early Christians were accused of being atheists could be a helpful exercise for us in this moment.
Reimbursements: IRS Rules, Accountable Plans, and Common Church Mistakes
This article explains how church expense reimbursements work, what an accountable plan requires, and the most common areas where churches make mistakes.
The Most Neglected Element of Worship
Far be it from us to polish our songs, in which we sing of God, while neglecting Scripture, in which we hear from God.
I recommend William Sydnor's Your Voice, God's Word: Reading the Bible in Church.Rushing Our Quiet Times
How long should quiet times take?
Thirty minutes? Forty minutes? An hour? Should we feel rebuked that we’re not getting up at 4 a.m. like a spiritual version of Jocko Willink? Or like Martin Luther, who is widely quoted as saying: “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Lately my answer to this question has become simple: the right length for a quiet time is long enough to be unhurried.
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