All around the country, church congregations are establishing separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations in order to draw new funding, new people, and new partnerships into the ministry of their church. In these difficult economic times when community needs have increased and…
Read MoreLeading in a Culture of Change
Michael Fullan, who writes primarily about public education and business, describes change as a nonlinear, usually chaotic process. “Change cannot be managed. It can be understood and perhaps led, but it cannot be controlled.”1 Given the chaotic nature of change,…
Read MoreBridging the Gap between Knowing and Doing
When congregations, with all good intentions, make plans for change but don’t seem to get anywhere, they may be experiencing the very common phenomenon that some have called the “knowing and doing gap.” You know what you need to do,…
Read MoreHarvesting Manna
The last eight months have been brutal for the world economy. If any of us ever doubted the truth of globalization, we no longer doubt. What started out as a subprime lending crisis in our own country has ballooned into…
Read MoreMuch Is Given:Practicing Generous Faith in Uncertain Times
While I generally use the lectionary texts as the basis for my sermons and worship preparation on most Sundays, I occasionally depart from that structure and craft my own series. Currently I’m working my way through a nine-part series on…
Read MoreGetting Neighborly: Finding Abundance in the Gifts of the Spirit
Laura and I stood at the back of her apartment complex, located just behind the church I serve. Fast food wrappers from nearby establishments had caught in the long grass and settled on a tired old couch leaning against a…
Read MoreWho Else Needs to Hear This? Turning Pastoral Visits into Opportunities to Practice Faith Sharing
We were seated in her sweet, 1950s-style living room when Eleanor evangelized me (Nancy). Of course, she wouldn’t have used that term. She was a Yankee and a lifelong member of a New England Congregational church. In that setting, evangelism…
Read MoreCreativity in Crisis: Responding to Community Hardship from Congregational Health
I must love church work. Though I make my living ministering to a variety of congregations across the country, every Sunday finds me in the same pulpit. A Baptist by tradition and persuasion, I log many hours in Presbyterian, Episcopal,…
Read MoreAn Unexpected Resiliency: How One Church Bounced Back after Hitting Bottom
In 2001, while conducting research for my book Revitalizing Congregations, I encountered a congregation that was in such a downward cycle and had such enormous internal conflict and divisions that I called it “Adrift Lutheran Church” and wondered whether it…
Read MoreA Communal Sabbath: One Church's Annual Practice of Rest
Every August our church—Bethesda Covenant Church in New York City—does something radical and countercultural, something so outside the norm of ordinary church behavior and tradition that most who hear of this practice seem to find it either brilliant or highly…
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