Predictable Surprises in the Church
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., encourages congregations to uncover and prepare for their “predictable surprises.” Leadership is about the future, so leaders must take the future…
Browsing: Mainline Challenges
Articles
Roadblocks to God’s Future
Alan Roxburgh describes established patterns, habits, and values that operate in the background of every church, standing in the way of renewal. We must, he…
Putting Ourselves in the Places Where Life Happens
Keith Anderson says our churches must get outside of our buildings, both digitally and physically, and claim a broader understanding of where faith happens. I’m…
The Church That Wouldn’t Die
Detroit is almost surgically separated into east and west by Woodward Avenue. Woodward stretches northwest from the Detroit River downtown all the way up through…
Measuring What Matters: A Conversation about Metrics and Mission
If your life is anything like mine, you may find yourself at the beginning of the year focusing on numbers from the past year. In…
Remember That We Are Working in Sand
Each summer my family spends a week at the beach. And every year my daughters, their friends, and I build a sand castle. We’ve discovered…
A Love Letter to a Closed Church
You walk up the concrete steps between the tall white columns. You try the door. It doesn’t open. You try again. It is locked. It’s…
Levers of Change for Congregations
Bishop Robert Schnase, author of the popular Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Abingdon, 2007), has inspired thousands of congregations to focus on what is most…
A Wilderness Experience
For a number of years our leaders have been using “exile“ as a metaphor for the situation of the church. Their assumption is that we…
Religion Census Reveals Changing Trends
While about 80 percent of people in the U.S. identify themselves as Christians, just under half of those belong to a local congregation. This is one…
Focus: The Real Challenges That Face The United Methodist Church
Few would disagree that many challenges face The United Methodist Church. But what are the core issues and concerns, the ones that must be addressed…
Will the Mainline Denominations Get It Right?
“We can either have a hard decade or a bad century.” New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman used these stark words to describe the…
The Worship Recession
It is commonplace to hear references to what it means for churches to function in “the current financial recession.” But there is another recession going…
The Culture Isn’t Killing the Church. Our Grief Is.
I recently attended a retreat with a number of church friends. We spent part of our time together looking at The problem is that while…
Denominations Face Major Reset
Most congregations know the financial squeeze of recent years from the economic recession. What is more striking is that the financial downturn for denominations is…
Why I go to Church
When I sit in church on Sunday mornings, I sometimes look around at the other congregants and ask myself, “Why are these people here? Why…
Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation
Many church leaders bemoan the absence of younger people from their pews without bothering to consider the contextual factors that must define ministry with new…
Meeting the Spiritual Needs of a Changing Community
Are there times when it feels as if your church resides on a different planet than it once did? The street signs are the same.…
Getting Your Congregation’s Story Right
Congregations, particularly mainline and established congregations, commonly tell either safe or weak stories about themselves. In an earlier era, when identity and purpose were clearer…
Is Denominational Loyalty Waning?
A new study documents a reality many have claimed for quite some time. People are not as loyal to their denominations as church leaders might…
Changing Religious Traditions: Not New but Accelerating
The recently released report on shifting religious affiliations among Americans is receiving significant media attention. Prepared by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life,…
Young Adults and the Future of the Church
How are twenty-and thirty-somethings shaping the future of American religion? Robert Wuthnow, a noted sociologist of religion, considers this question in After the Baby Boomers (Princeton University…
Ministering to the Missing Generation
When I began as a twenty-seven-year-old pastor of a small rural church, ministering to young adults seemed like an impossible task. Newspapers and magazines often…
Is Your Church History a Static or Dynamic Force?
Church history is a lot like gravity — it is always with us whether we are aware of it or not. While church history may…
Can White Mainline Churches Outside the South Reach New Christians?
This is the question raised by Martha Grace Reese and the Mainline Evangelism Project she directed. The results of her research, funded by the Lilly…
Learning to See and Listen to Younger Adults
Susan Cox-Johnson encourages church members to seek out and listen to young adults in their communities to learn about their life and faith. As a…
The Young Clergy Dilemma in Mainline Denominations
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., reviews Leading Ideas research that shows that fewer young persons are entering ordained ministry in mainline denominations. It is easy for…
All the Mainline News That’s Fit to Print
The declining influence of mainline denominations is reflected in the that they appear far less frequently in the New York Times than they did eighty…