Q: My congregation has never been very good with change. Whenever a new idea is proposed, it is quickly shot down with the phrase, “that isn’t how we do things here.” Our new pastor has been drawing in new and…

There’s a miracle story in the Bible that’s so important that it shows up in all four Gospels.It takes place on a crowded hillside where thousands of people have gathered to hear Jesus preach. It gets to be late in…

The role of the congregational rabbi is a multi-faceted one that demands a wide variety of capabilities—no news there. Recent work has emphasized the importance of the rabbi in envisioning a new approach to the synagogue that addresses today’s realities…

On Friday afternoon, Pastor Souris is sitting in her office, working on Sunday’s sermon, when the telephone rings. The caller tells her that the major employer in the community has just announced layoffs. Some of the managers who make the…

  Interim election, November 2006, the state of South Dakota. Petitions successfully force a statewide vote on a new antiabortion law passed earlier by the state legislature. The law would have forbidden virtually all abortions in South Dakota, except where…

I am neither a sociologist nor a researcher into congregational trends or statistics. What I do know, however, is that over the past few decades, many congregations in the United States have been facing a slow and steady decline in…