Source: The recently released National Congregations Study has offered up a variety of data on changing trends in American houses of worship when it comes to the treatment of gays and lesbians and overarching demographics, but there’s one data point that hasn’t been given as much attention: the decline of choirs. Church choirs have always been a tradition at American houses of worship, but among the 1,331 churches, synagogues, temples and other religious institutions that the National Congregations Study surveyed in 2012, a steep... Read more

This is our fifth post in our series on what the Church can learn from AA. Here are the links to our first, second, third and fourth posts. Our prior posts have looked at features of AA’s program that might have been a surprise to many: that it is a seemingly tailor-made response to the King-Jesus gospel; that AA is essentially in the spiritual (trans)formation business, which it pursues through a communally supported discipleship process; that it has, through the... Read more

Our Jesus Creed project of providing for every age in every church a way entering into the life Jesus advocates — loving God and loving otthers by reciting the Jesus Creed daily and living it out — is now complete. The newest addition to the project that completes it is Sharing God’s Love, a book my daughter, Laura McKnight Barringer, and I wrote (she did most of the writing while I gave the big ideas and offered suggestions). The adorable artwork... Read more

This is an amazing set of possibilities for health and medical care — at great savings! Read more

Grant us, Lord, Not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly. And even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more

Web MD: Daytime naps can be one way to treat sleep deprivation, says Sara C. Mednick, PhD, sleep expert and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life. “You can get incredible benefits from 15 to 20 minutes of napping,” she says. “You reset the system and get a burst of alertness and increased motor performance. That’s what most people really need to stave off sleepiness and get an energy boost.” The length of your nap and the type of sleep... Read more

Golden Rule, Narrow Gate The Golden Rule   “Yet we cannot fail to observe that the Golden Rule of 7:12 officially closes the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon and summarizes the essence of the sermon,” notes Scot McKnight in his SGBC: Sermon on the Mount (250, emphasis Scot’s). We are reviewing chapters 20 and 21 in Scot’s commentary. Did you know that about the Sermon on the Mount—there is an ending before the ending? Like many readers of the SoM,... Read more

I’ve heard it and maybe you have too: the spiritual but not religious crowd lacks theology and has a make-it-up-for-yourself kind of spirituality. Is this accurate? Is there a theology at work among the SBNR group? Are they are salad bar spirituality crowd? Linda Mercandante has investigated the Religious Nones, which have been  both ignored and even more often exaggerated, but they are a real and significant demographic. She studies them through the lens of their theology in order to... Read more