“When it comes to spiritual experience, words are often woefully inadequate. For that matter, neither do images or any of the arts fully convey the Great Mystery. Even so, there are some practices that improve our chances. When we open…
Read MorePreaching as Practice: Techniques to Help Your Whole Congregation Share Their Faith during Your Sermon
At a workshop we recently led at a national gathering of UCC and Disciples women, we threw out a number of questions to get a conversation about evangelism rolling. Our questions were sincere, but somehow they got the room laughing….
Read MoreThe Main Thing: Finding Diversity and Joy in “The Work of the People”
These days people want congregations to do many things. Walk into a megachurch like Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and you will find large service counters to help visitors and members find the particular connection they are…
Read MorePostmodern Worship: Three Views: There’s More To It Than “If You Build It, They Will Come”
Balancing the old with the new is a great challenge for congregations. As church leaders struggle with how to reach the postmodern generation, new and traditional ideas often clash. The tensions are most acutely evident in matters of worship. “It’s…
Read MoreThe Digital Revolution: Changing the “How” of Ministry, Not the “What”
Has the digital revolution changed anything fundamental about ministry? When I entered ministry in 1982, I began by using an array of gadgets taht were not state-of-the-art but were typical of what a congregation of modest means could supply at…
Read MoreFinding Links That Matter at Schultz’s Deli
It seems the dot-com revolution is coming to the church. Congregations everywhere are rushing to develop interesting Web sites. Denominations strive to connect. And Christian periodicals laud all of these efforts. The ecclesiastical dot-org movement breezily promises great things: vast…
Read MoreAsk Alban: Mentoring: Don’t Wait to Be Invited
Q: Parish ministry is learned largely through experience. How do I find a mentor to guide and challenge me now that I am out of seminary? My denomination seems more inclined to give me additional study requirements than to provide…
Read MoreClergy by the Numbers: Statistics Show It’s Not a Youthful Picture
The numbers of young mainline clergy have declined dramatically in recent decades. The table on page 9 provides a snapshot of age distributions of today’s mainline clergy, and it’s not a youthful picture. The numbers can’t be explained away by…
Read MoreWorship as a Vision-Building Work of God
Spiritual vitality and newfound creativity are natural outcomes when God-centered congregational vision finds expression in worship. Over the years, my worship planning with colleagues would wander and weave through holy texts and themes with only an occasional nod toward local…
Read MoreThe Spirit Is A-Movin’: Helping Worshipers Find Their Voice
The year is 1931. Visualize St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles: huge Gothic arches, awe-inspiring stained glass windows, massive chandeliers imported from Europe, an organ bellowing music to the heavens, pews filled with Anglo-Saxons dressed in…
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