A learning resource for Christian leaders and theirRecently published
While the Bible encourages us to be hospitable to strangers, the possibilities can be frightening. Some churches provide models for bringing people together beyond weekly services or liturgical ties.
Link to author Sarah E. Forsyth
Pastors share what they’ve learned about their congregations, about the work of the church and about themselves five years after the pandemic forced most to close their doors.
Link to author Edie Gross
No longer able to sustain a choral program and facing clergy overload, members of a Maryland congregation now tell the old, old story by leaning into music, their pastor writes.
Link to author McKenna Wallen
If we pay attention, the presence or absence of certain indicators can help us assess the vitality of our faith communities, writes a director of grants for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
Link to author Victoria Atkinson White
Encountering a sculpture in a public square prompts a church innovator to reflect on the changes in our institutions — and how to react to them.
Link to author Shannon Hopkins
Lawndale Christian Community Church invests in its neighborhood with an “ecosystem” of programs, services and discipleship opportunities intended to help everyone who lives there thrive.
Link to author Alison Bowen
Volunteers from a small North Carolina church feed their neighbors each week with a hot meal and companionship in an outsize effort to the community.
Link to author Yonat Shimron
While we admire speed and efficiency, successful change can require time and patience, writes an associate director for Leadership at Duke Divinity’s Thriving Congregations Coordination Program.
Link to author Sarah E. Forsyth
A pastor shares his experience with a new model in which a larger congregation helps a smaller one by digitally sharing resources, sermons and other assets.
Link to author A. Trevor Sutton
In Maryland, families have gathered for almost three decades to create a faith community where they can fully explore their religious identities without sacrificing their heritage.
Link to author Edie Gross
The Rev. Ashley Goff reflects on her congregation’s long — and sometimes contentious — process of building 173 apartments for low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities in this excerpt from “Gone for Good?”
Link to author Ashley Goff
