Focusing on multigenerational growth is one reason Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene (OVCN) has flourished. Located in Oro Valley, a Southern Arizona suburb that has shifted from a retirement destination to a hub for young families, OVCN has expanded its congregation by continuing its outreach to older adults while appealing to the next generation of believers.
Churches make ‘significant’ contribution to essential services in local communities, study finds
Churches could be providing as many as a quarter of a million essential community services across England, according to new research.
Earl Spencer is right to raise concerns about the Church of England’s historic buildings
The light shone by Earl Spencer, brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, on the financial threat to Britain’s historic churches is significant. But it is noteworthy that his article in the Financial Times did not mention the £100 million the Church of England aims to spend on slavery reparations, which could have been going on frontline parish ministry instead.
The Incredible Story of First Baptist Church of San Francisco: An Interview with Dr. Ryan Blackwell
Jess and Thom welcome Dr. Ryan Blackwell, President and CEO of Lifeway, to The Church Answers Podcast. He shares the incredible story of First Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Five Giving Strategies Almost No Church Is Using
Jess and Thom share five innovative and rare strategies that increase giving in the church. They estimate that fewer than one percent of churches use any of these strategies.
Recovering Moral Authority
Driving past a church in my neighborhood, you cannot miss its huge banner facing the busy street: “God loves everyone—no exceptions.” Well, yes. But it also reflects a broader church culture in which the message of salvation from sin and the hard work of living a sanctified life are too often replaced by personal affirmations.
This is more than another example of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace”—forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. It’s emblematic of a larger culture in which everyone sees themselves as a leader, yet few welcome maturing discipleship that requires a spiritual course correction.
8 Ministry Staff Recruiting Red Flags
As staff recruiting in ministry world continues to evolve and become more competitive and sophisticated in recent years, churches and recruiting firms have developed a keen sense of red flags during the recruiting process that relate to whether a candidate is a good fit for your church or not. Those red flags may be a bit different from church to church but there are many red flags that are fairly consistent across the board.
Prayer Book as Precedent
The Book of Common Prayer is a profound resource and represents a rich religious heritage. Its influence runs throughout English literature and poetry. It has sparked and resolved debates and led to martyrdoms. Most importantly, the prayer book provides Christians throughout the world a means of prayer and mission formed by a sound doctrine of grace and adherence to Holy Scripture.
The American prayer book tradition, we argue, is a body of binding precedent—set at decisive moments in its history—that governs and informs liturgical interpretation, practice, and revision. This is not a historical claim, but a theological one about the nature of the prayer book tradition in America. In what follows, we aim to provide a narrative of key turning points in this tradition to aid readers in identifying the precedent contained in the prayer book and its implementation so they can use it soundly.
First Cornish musical setting of the Eucharist receives cultural award
The Cornish People’s Mass, a Eucharistic service entirely in the Cornish language, has been recognised with a prestigious award for its cultural significance. This is the story...
Also See: Oferen an Dasserghyans (Mass of the Resurrection)How AI Will Change Church Giving (And What You Should Do Now)
Former Intel and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger talks about what AI is doing to us and our churches. He unpacks the mental health toll of social media (and what’s coming next), the job loss scenarios leaders aren’t ready for, how AI will reshape giving in the church, and why engaging high-net-worth individuals matters now.
Plus: will the AI optimists or pessimists be proven right?
We need to rethink what it means to be a grandparent
Some grandparents are doing everything. Other older people would give anything to be needed.
That is one of the stranger paradoxes of modern family life. High housing costs, punishing childcare bills and demanding jobs are leaning hard on parents. At the same time, more people are having fewer children, having them later, or not having them at all.
These changes affect parents, of course. But they also reshape grandparenthood itself. For some, it is becoming overburdened. For others, it is slipping out of reach.
3 Marks of True Repentance
Repentance lies at the heart of the Christian message and forms the rhythm of the Christian life. The Greek word metanoia, often translated as “repentance,” speaks of a turning, a genuine change of mind, heart, and life that is not a one-time act but a way of living.1 True repentance is more than simply acknowledging our wrongs and feeling sorry for what we have done; it is turning from our ways and returning to God with conviction of wrongs, contrition of heart, and confession of sin. In doing so, we receive the abundant mercy of God in Christ.
It is important to understand that repentance does not begin with us; it begins with the gracious initiative of God, who turns our hearts from the things of this world back to himself. As Mark Boda writes, “God is in the process of transforming us from within—our behavior, our hearts, and our entire lives.”2 Thus repentance is more than a onetime action; it is a repeated act throughout the Christian life. Martin Luther captured this truth in the first statement in his Ninety-Five Theses: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite [in English, ‘repent’], willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”3 Psalm 51:3–4 helps us see that true repentance is marked by clearheaded conviction, brokenhearted contrition, and openhanded confession.
Image Credit: Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene
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