Third rails are electrified metal rails supplying power to subway trains. If you touch the other two rails, you will live. If you touch the third rail, there are no guarantees. A “third rail” has …

Most North American churches need downsizing.  Lifeway Research (see here) notes that today’s median worship attendance is 65, down from 137 in 2000.  This downsizing trend has been accelerated by three factors: a cultural shift …

Essential to church renewal is congregational health.  Without healthy relationships revitalization is impossible.  Sadly, many congregations needing a fresh start are mired in unhealthy dialogue about same sex attraction, gender identity and Christian discipleship.  These …

The well-known expert in church planting, revitalization, and trends in Christian missiology, Dr. Ed Stetzer, was a recent guest on Church Now Conversations (view here). Dr. Stetzer reflected on ministry in a post-COVID world and …

A U.S. presidential candidate in the last election cycle replied to most questions with, “I have a plan for that.”  When asked about ministry and mission few churches can reply, “We have a plan for …

Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He replied with the story of the Good Samaritan which highlighted, essentially, “Anyone God puts in your path whose needs you are able to meet.”   Renewal congregations want …

“As leaders go, so goes the church.”  That maxim is self-evident to anyone attempting a congregational turn-around.  The challenge, of course, is finding good leaders.  Many congregations first identify they are in trouble when they …

For more than one-hundred years “To Know Christ and Make Christ Known” has been the mission statement of a historic congregation in my hometown.  A thriving renewal congregation in Florida has a similar but expanded …

We are living in post-Christendom. Most scholars identify the time from the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the 4th century to the early 2000’s as the era of Christendom in the West.   For …

Renewal leadership is a high-risk calling given that renewal demands change, change creates anxiety, anxiety fosters tension and tension in a community often becomes a leader’s undoing.  Countless renewal leaders are told that a faith …