Is the world a better place because of Christianity? Increasingly, authors, bloggers, and influencers are saying that religion promotes injustice and violence. They believe that many non-Christians care about the poor and vulnerable more than the Church …
New surveys show the rise of the “Nones” may be coming to an end, but it’s not all good news. This month, the Cooperative Election Study published new findings, showing that 36 percent of people now identify …
The gravitational pull of churches will always be toward the wants and needs of insiders. It takes intentional effort to keep a church focused on its mission of reaching those outside the faith. At this year’s …
How do ideas spread? That is the question behind Everett Rogers’ classic book, The Diffusion of Innovations. As church renewal leaders, learning the art and science of change is crucial to our work. Developing those skills by reading …
How do you know if your church renewal efforts are effective? Most of us have a general sense of how things are going at our churches. Feelings are not enough. We need objective measurements of church …
What do high impact congregations have in common? That is the question the developers of the REVEAL Survey (REVEAL measures the discipleship health of a congregation) wanted to answer when they asked pastors from the highest …
As pastors, we have the opportunity to be autobiographical in our preaching and in our leadership. We even have the option of showing our own brokenness and need of the Gospel. But how much vulnerability …
Right on schedule at 3:13 p.m. yesterday, everyone in Cleveland looked up to the sky and gasped in delight. Almost 240,000 miles away, the moon moved into perfect alignment with the sun. Because the moon is …
Pastors sometimes joke about “ChrEasters” or “CEOs” (Christmas/Easter Only attenders), but the reality is no laughing matter. The frequency of church attendance nationwide continues to drop at an alarming rate. The Household Pulse Survey revealed that 49 …
