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 …
Who Is My Neighbor?
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 …
Addressing the Renewal Leadership Challenge
“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 …
Renewal and Living the Jesus Life
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 …
Renewal And Post-Christendom
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 Leaders Who Survive Change
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 …
Renewal and the Practice of Missional Hospitality
Gibson CRC (located near Saugatuck, MI) recently served as a hospitality and warming station for the annual “Frostbite Marathon” that began on an early Sunday morning in Downtown Holland and finished at the Saugatuck State …
Renewal and Doing a Lot with a Little
A renewal challenge many congregations face is engaging in high impact ministry with limited resources. This challenge may become more acute as the dust settles in a post-pandemic and post-churched world. Fortunately, we follow a …
Biblical Prayers for Renewal
Often, our prayer lives can grow stale. We are wise to return to the scriptures, because they give us words we didn’t know we needed. God’s people have always prayed for and sought God for …
From Exhaustion to Exhilaration in 2022
It’s been a long season! When church gatherings were shuttered in March 2020 and everyone hyperventilated about getting on-line, the assumption was that everything would be back to normal by Easter (five short weeks in …
