Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not […]
I got a nice email from a pastor in Australia that set me to thinking. He writes: I found your blog by accident and started reading it regularly, but for a time I thought you were having me on. I thought it was a joke site, because of the outrageous […]
What responsibility does the individual have for her or his own spiritual growth and development? At least 70% of people leaving The United Methodist Church give “spiritual needs not met” as one of the reasons for their departure. (Based on 429 “exit” interviews, 2002-2003) But what do they mean when […]
A thought exercise: what would happen to The United Methodist Church in these United States if when we woke up tomorrow morning, all our buildings and property were gone? How many of our congregations would carry on with hardly a disruption? How many “members” would we lose to churches with […]
We live in a Wiki world. A collaborative, evolving, and highly interactive way of creating and recreating reality. Facts and opinions merge to create a new kind of “flexible” truth. Wikipedia has transformed the way we think about information and the authority of the written word. Knowledge is built over […]
“You’re against church growth, aren’t you?” asked a new, young pastor. I looked at him for a moment, pausing to reflect on the fact that I am often my own worst enemy. I can fully understand how someone who reads my writing — books and blogs — might get the […]
In recent months I have visited a number of churches where leaders have apologetically said to me, “Our numbers are down. We always lose them through the summer.” Worship attendance is currently the primary metric for a church’s effectiveness — which is ironic because worship attendance has nothing to do […]
Okay, I know I am sounding like a broken record, but no other subject has garnered the kind of response this one has. The subject of truth-telling in leadership is volatile. As I have said before, what is most amazing to me is how strongly some pastors and lay people […]
When did “evangelism” become “marketing?” At what point did the church rise up and say, “You know? Evangelism doesn’t have to be personal. We can phone (email, billboard, television, webcast) it in!” The shift from relational evangelism to representational evangelism is almost complete in some areas. At the School of […]
I listened to a sermon on restorative justice — one of my passions. I am generally an easy audience for justice messages, but this particular one kept jarring me. The preacher hammered on the need for us to be in ministry to both victims and victimizers, to the incarcerated, to […]
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