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How can Advent be special in a year when so much is different? Professor of Worship Anna Petrin shares ideas for bringing Advent from the sanctuary to the home and allowing its themes of longing and hope to speak to our current reality.
How can you teach the New Testament in ways that make it come alive to modern people? In this episode we speak with New Testament Professor Shively Smith about innovative approaches to teaching the gospel that disrupt our staid and familiar notions of the biblical text.
Older adults are leaving or downsizing church involvement at rates comparable to that of younger adults, says Michelle Van Loon. Churches that typically focus most…
Churches often put a lot of emphasis on nurturing families, children, and those at the start of their faith journey. But what about others? In this episode we speak with Michelle Van Loon about how churches can better help people in midlife continue to grow in faith as they navigate their unique life challenges.
Johannah Myers describes a paradigm shift in how we form disciples with a move away from Christian education toward an emphasis on forming people in…
Luke Edwards says we can explore our communities with the same spiritual practices that deepen our understanding of God’s Word. He has adapted the practice…
Tom Bandy explains that the rise in the number of people who claim to be spiritual but not religious is a manifestation of a larger…
David McAllister-Wilson sees the distinctive spiritual heritage of Methodism as something uniquely suited to our times — a legacy that cannot be sacrificed as the…
Tom Berlin, pastor of Floris United Methodist Church, challenges his congregation to deepen their spiritual journey during Lent by taking up the disciplines of worship,…
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…
Lovett Weems reports on research suggesting that it’s possible for the less engaged to become more engaged in your church, but not by asking them…
Parishes are a special form of human community. At the heart of every parish is a motley crowd of ordinary people, each with an individual…
A common phrase used in recent years to describe some people is “spiritual but not religious.” It sounds good and believable given our modern individualistic…
One of the most important challenges confronting the church today is the rise of the so-called “Nones,” that is, the religiously unaffiliated, those who check…
Several recent research efforts addressing the spiritual practices of those not connected to religious communities have found that prayer is a practice that those inside…
How does someone in your church go from being new to being an authentic follower of Jesus Christ? Many churches provide really fuzzy answers to…
The church wonders why regular worship attendance is now being redefined for many churches as once a month, rather than once a week. Leaders are…
Judith Sutera, a Benedictine sister, has spent decades as vinedresser for her monastery’s garden after careful apprenticeship with a mentor wise to the ways of…
The Pew Research Center’s recent report on changes in religious affiliation in the United States received major attention among both secular and religious media. Some…
The fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel contains rich imagery of the vine and the branches, an image that would have been obvious to those who…
In June 2011, Steve Jobs made a twenty-minute presentation to the Cupertino City Council to introduce Apple’s plans for a new corporate headquarters, affectionately known…
The church of the future must emphasize spirituality. We traditionally have asked people to come to church simply because it is a good thing to…
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…
United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase, author of the best-selling Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations published by Abingdon Press in 2007, has a new book on…
Many of us intuit that there is a critical deficit of theology in contemporary congregations. Like Anthony Robinson, we have seen the “Pecos River syndrome,”…
Lovett Weems considers Robin Gill’s supposition that people tend to belong to religious communities before coming to belief rather than the other way around. Robin…
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.
