A call to strategic planning, visioning, and mission reflection may sound worthwhile and feel energizing at first, but the process often fails to steer a congregation through lasting creative change. How many visioning and planning processes has your board experienced…
Read MoreAsk Alban: Committee Charters: Helping Us Be Our Best
Q: Right now we just tell our committees what we would like them to do. We don’t put anything in writing. Should we develop a formal job description for our committees? A: Committee charters are definitely worth the time they…
Read MoreCENTERview: Being the Exception to the Rule: What It Takes to Transcend Negative Trends
There is an exception to every rule. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the fastest growing and most virulent infections hospitals are battling, but a hospital in Pittsburgh was able to eliminate MRSA infections in a single year. Likewise,…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: A High-Stakes Church Supper
A new moment in American church history occurred on Sunday, June 10, 2008. That day the business section of the New York Times devoted a full half page to a story about a church supper. Such suppers are hardly breaking…
Read MoreOn Living in a Dying Church
My father’s death followed a long, slow decline. We could tell in January that he had changed—he was no longer interested in leaving the assisted living center that had become his home. By early spring, when my brother or I…
Read MoreWhen a Pastor Endorses a Candidate: A Personal Confession
Preachers aren’t supposed to engage in partisan politicking, but I must confess that I’ve endorsed a presidential candidate. While I haven’t done any politicking from the pulpit or in front of the church sign, or used any church letterhead either,…
Read MoreFaith and Politics: Finding a Way to Have a Fruitful Conversation
Considerable debate is happening in America today about the role of religion in politics. Of the two parties, the Republican Party seems the most comfortable with religious input, and many candidates go out of their way to court religious voters….
Read MoreWho's Driving the Bus? Discovering the Hidden Forces Directing Your Congregation
A call to strategic planning, visioning, and mission reflection may sound worthwhile and feel energizing at first, but the process often fails to steer a congregation through lasting creative change. How many visioning and planning processes has your board experienced…
Read MoreThe Seven Habits of Highly Effective and Highly Ineffective Churches
Writer Annie Dillard somewhere makes the observation that quite possibly the greatest indication of God’s grace she can imagine is the continued existence of the church on earth! There are days like that, aren’t there? Days when we wonder why…
Read MorePartisan Religion
When people are going over my resume, if I am present, I love to watch their reactions. I see a few of them pause as they read the letters A…C…L…U. They don’t even look up at me, afraid to reveal…
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