The numerical height of mainline Protestantism in the United States occurred in the year 1965.1 That was the year that the largest percentages of American people affiliated with and attended church. More Americans were going to church than at any…
Read MoreSigns of Vitality
What does small church vitality look like? To be sure, there is no one definition, and the variations on small church vitality are as numerous as the congregations themselves. Some are located in areas where numerical growth is possible and…
Read MoreNever Let Money (or the lack of it) Stop You From One of God’s Good Ideas! The Pastoral Residency for Turnaround Ministry
by Mary Louise Gifford In 1953, with its membership over nine hundred people, no one could have predicted the cultural and personal changes that would lead the thriving congregation at Wollaston Congregational Church (WCCUCC) in Quincy, MA, to the gates of…
Read MoreShine Your Light: How to Build Buzz and Reach Your Community
It was a lovely winter Sunday, and I was sitting with four friends in the pews of a Unitarian church in the small town of Littleton, Massachusetts. Nothing terribly unusual—except that none of us were Unitarians and we had never…
Read MoreVital Worship, Healthy Congregations
Christianity is a “first-person plural” religion, where communal worship, service, fellowship, and learning are indispensable for grounding and forming individual faith. The strength of Christianity in North America depends on the presence of healthy, spiritually nourishing, well-functioning congregations. Congregations are…
Read MoreComing Together: Healing Division and Forming Union through Story
The first Methodist Society was formed in the log cabin home of Wheeling, West Virginia’s founder, Ebenezer Zane, in 1786. That initial gathering of the faithful became the first organized church in the area and the first Methodist appointment west…
Read MoreChoosing Life over Death: The Story of a Congregation’s Rebirth
I arrived in Boston in 1995 with a heart and a history for urban ministry. I soon discovered that there were many fewer Presbyterian congregations in New England than in my old New Jersey stomping grounds where I served congregations…
Read MoreFrom Birth to Death: Exploring the Life Cycle of the Church
As a young, 52-year-old, middle-aged person (I intend to live to be 104), I am becoming increasingly (and sometimes agonizingly) aware of the natural life cycle of human beings. I remember when misery was a bee sting, not back pain;…
Read MoreLeading into the Promised Land: Lessons Learned From Resilient Congregations
Much of the literature in the field of congregational conflict is focused on what causes conflict, how to prevent it, and what to do when a church is already in conflict, but little has been written about congregations who have…
Read MoreRediscovering the Point: Congregational Sabbaticals
by Roger Kruger In bestselling British author Terry Pratchett’s book Monstrous Regiment, a magic sword admits to a longing to become a plowshare. “I don’t know what that is,” the sword confesses, “but it sounds like an existence with some point…
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