“66% of you have the spiritual gift of ‘helps‘.” I once heard a church consultant confidently state this statistic. The consultant said it with the kind of certainty that convinced quite a few people in the room that he was telling us something that any four-year old would know. Well, any four-year old who worked for the dude’s church growth firm, that is. To this day, the smugness of that comment still echoes in my head. It sounded like he... Read more

This post is well worth some of your pondering time. Read more

I’m currently reading a book penned by Washington Times religion Julia Duin called Quitting Church: Why The Faithful Are Fleeing and What To Do About It. It’s a very well-written book with a surprisingly personal spin, given Duin’s journalist credentials. It doesn’t break any new ground, but pulls together stats, trends, and bits of her own story in a winsome, readable manner. Though I haven’t finished it, here’s what I discovered in what I’ve perused so far: I’ve read almost... Read more

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading the book of Job as part of my devotional reading. Maybe it’s the cumulative effect of my life experiences. Maybe it my current awkward growing pains as I’m trying to learn my new job. Or maybe it’s because I’m firmly planted smack-dab in the middle of mid-life and my newly-emptied nest. No matter what the reason, the melancholy cry of Psalm 39 has captured some of emotion of my soul: I said, “I will... Read more

Scenes from the start of the school year: I walked into work this morning and saw two girls sitting a few seats apart from one another in the otherwise empty chapel. They weren’t speaking to one another. They were just sitting companionably in the dark, in the silence. Intense conversations, everywhere. All the time. It will be sad when it snows because 98% of the students will have to stow their flip flops until spring. The other 2% will wear... Read more

The last week and a half has included: – Moving my youngest son Jacob into his first apartment in a brand-new town for him, where he’ll begin classes this week. He doesn’t know a single person there. I’m praying… – An early-labor scare from my daughter; she’s due October 10. – A very steep learning curve last week in my new job, as well as the challenge of rustling up the equipment I’ll need to do the job. Oh, and... Read more

As part of my 3-4 times a year update to those on my e-mail list, I sent the the following post. Read on to the end to find out the suggestions I got from those who responded to my question. I sweetened the deal by offering readers an opportunity to win one of two $15 Starbucks gift cards if they responded. Here’s what I wrote: The other day, I went hunting in our garage and noticed a mystery box that... Read more

There are hundreds of church growth seminars offering church leaders enough “tools for their leadership toolbox” to stock a Home Depot. I’ve never heard of a seminar telling church leaders how to shrink their congregations…or even to kill them…but this happens A LOT. Stagnation, shrinkage or complete collapse may be more common than the stunning growth that those church growth seminars seem to showcase. I’m thinking about this today because some friends from a former congregation sent us a copy... Read more

Quite possibly, the wackiest headline I’ve ever seen. Read more

An African guest at our church stood in front of the congregation this morning, reading…no, proclaiming…today’s New Testament selection. His richly-accented English brought the passage alive for me in a fresh way. It was verse 15 that struck me: “As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food’“. Even if our reader came... Read more