Join Thom and Sam Rainer on Thursday, July 16, at 1:00 PM Eastern for The Unchurched Next Door: New Tools and Insights to Really Reach Them. In this free webinar, you’ll discover why the mission field around your church may be larger and more receptive than you realize. Learn about the five levels of unchurched receptivity (U1–U5), uncover where your greatest outreach opportunities exist, and see how The Unchurched Report can help your church better understand and engage the people in your community. Save your spot today!
The Future of Church Hiring When Pastors Are in Short Supply
As more churches struggle to find qualified pastors, the future of church hiring is changing fast. In this episode, Thom and Sam explore what pastor shortages mean for congregations, why old search processes are becoming less effective, and how churches can adapt with greater clarity, flexibility, and realism. The conversation focuses on practical ways churches can rethink staffing, develop internal leaders, and build healthier expectations for the next generation of pastors.
A growing number of Episcopal congregations must share a priest with one or more other congregations, have a priest who is about to retire, or must depend upon aging retired priests to supply them. To make matters, worse they cannot function well on their own without a priest because their worship, ministry, and life as a congregation is priest-centered. Worship services are poorly planned and executed on priestless Sundays and worship committees planning these services too often suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect and are resistant to guidance.
The pandemic, with all its challenges for churches, showed that even the smallest churches can do things they previously would have thought impossible. But the pandemic also reminds us that those changes are not easy or without tension and a great deal of new learning. The challenge for churches today is to find ways to innovate without the presence of a pandemic or similar external disruption.
All mindsets from yesteryear are not "conservative," an all too common assumption, they can also be "progressive." For example, the antipathy in the Episcopal Church to evangelism and evangelistic outreach.
The Trump administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scaled back a federal-state partnership that monitors foodborne illnesses, including cyclospora, a year before several states began reporting an outbreak of cyclospora infection, a foodborne illness that can cause “explosive” diarrhea.
Just in time for the church picnics, potlucks, and block parties of the summer.
Throughout the history of the church, at least since the fourth century AD, Christians have turned to the Apostles’ Creed as one of the clearest summaries of “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Though brief—only about a hundred words—it distills the heart of Christian belief in a way that both instructs and unites God’s people. In an age when truth feels fluid and identity shifts with every new cultural current, the Creed offers a firm place to stand, reminding believers who God is and what the gospel truly proclaims.
I Believe in God, the Father Almighty
The Apostles’ Creed begins with four simple yet seismic words: “I believe in God.” For centuries, Christians have confessed this as the foundation of all faith. But what does it actually mean to believe in God? And what kind of God are we talking about—the vague spiritual force of popular culture revealed in Star Wars, or the living, triune God revealed in Scripture?
The first line of the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty,” invites us to recover a vision of God that is both intimate and immense—personal yet infinite, near yet utterly holy—immanent yet totally transcendent.
5 of the Worst Leadership Traits I’ve Experienced
...what actually separates a flawed leader from one who never reaches their potential? After years of watching pastors and church leaders up close, I’ve narrowed it to five traits. Feel free to disagree, or add to the list.
The Brutal Reality of Pastoring with John Ortberg
John Ortberg has spent decades leading churches, writing books, and teaching leaders. But every leader has parts of the job they’re not naturally good at. In this conversation, John opens up about pain in leadership, what it’s like to be an introvert in ministry, and how to handle the work you’d rather avoid.
I Believe in God, the Father Almighty
The Apostles’ Creed begins with four simple yet seismic words: “I believe in God.” For centuries, Christians have confessed this as the foundation of all faith. But what does it actually mean to believe in God? And what kind of God are we talking about—the vague spiritual force of popular culture revealed in Star Wars, or the living, triune God revealed in Scripture?
The first line of the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty,” invites us to recover a vision of God that is both intimate and immense—personal yet infinite, near yet utterly holy—immanent yet totally transcendent.
5 of the Worst Leadership Traits I’ve Experienced
...what actually separates a flawed leader from one who never reaches their potential? After years of watching pastors and church leaders up close, I’ve narrowed it to five traits. Feel free to disagree, or add to the list.
The Brutal Reality of Pastoring with John Ortberg
John Ortberg has spent decades leading churches, writing books, and teaching leaders. But every leader has parts of the job they’re not naturally good at. In this conversation, John opens up about pain in leadership, what it’s like to be an introvert in ministry, and how to handle the work you’d rather avoid.
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