Getting to know the community that your congregation will focus on is a critical step in defining your mission. To start, work on getting answers to several key questions: What are the primary issues in your community? How do the…
Read MorePlanning as Holy Conversation
A primary responsibility of leaders is to help the congregation understand where it is going, why such a direction is important, and how to get there. By leaders, we mean not only pastors or rabbis but also congregational members who…
Read MoreVital Congregations as Intentional Communities of Practice
What is a vital congregation? Is it simply a community of fervent conviction and shared belief about who we are, where we came from, why we’re here, and the direction the world is going? Or is congregational vitality to be…
Read MoreWorship and Congregational Vocation
Worship is one of the first experiences of a congregation that newcomers might have, and it therefore becomes an opportunity for the church to introduce itself to outsiders. When potential members or other visitors encounter a congregation in worship, they…
Read MoreReshaping the Transition into Ministry
A promising set of new experiments has the potential to make a collective impact on the way people enter pastoral ministry in the twenty-first century. The Transition into Ministry initiative (TiM)—an effort funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and participated in…
Read MoreFallacies of Planning
I often read reviews of products I already own. Apparently I’m not alone: a lot of people, after a big purchase, hunt for favorable reviews. It makes us feel better and leaves us more convinced than ever that we made…
Read MoreThe Aftermath of Afterpastoring
Nancy Myer Hopkins, one of the primary contributors to When a Congregation Is Betrayed, was once making a presentation to a group of afterpastors about the dynamics of grief in a congregation where clergy misconduct has occurred. As she spoke, she…
Read MoreBeyond "Corporate": New Insights on Larger Churches
Recent research has provided considerable data on how leadership, growth, and assimilation happen in congregations up to 400 and beyond 2,000 in weekly worship attendance. But what happens in between? What are the leadership, growth, and assimilation challenges faced by…
Read MoreBeyond “Corporate”: New Insights on Larger Churches
Recent research has provided considerable data on how leadership, growth, and assimilation happen in congregations up to 400 and beyond 2,000 in weekly worship attendance. But what happens in between? What are the leadership, growth, and assimilation challenges faced by…
Read MoreScience in Faith and Ministry
When I was a youth minister outside of St. Paul, Minnesota, some years ago, the local lore included a story of how Post-it® Notes were conceived during church one Sunday. A 3M engineer named Arthur Fry was singing in his…
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