Jim Antal: The challenge for our generation
Denominations are needed to harness the power of individuals and congregations to take action against global warming, says the UCC’s Massachusetts conference minister.
Congregations
Most Recently Published
Brad Kalajainen: A congregation can build without losing a sense of mission
We have always viewed buildings (and now we can speak in the plural) as tools of ministry. Dynamic churches are always short of space.
Michael Jinkins: Four beatitudes for leadership
A church in New Orleans wants to move beyond rebuilding to educating for mission. They, and we, should bless dissent, failure, story, and blessing.
James Howell: Church growth via luck
I grew a church big by being placed near a new housing development and bumping into a good-looking, gregarious couple that had just moved in.
Tom Arthur: To have a church building or not?
Do bricks and mortar help or hinder mission?
Prince Raney Rivers: What comes after "contemporary" worship? The return of "traditional"
The usual story is of a pastor who staunches a church’s decline by introducing “contemporary” worship. But Macedonia Baptist in Pittsburgh capped its growth with a return to “traditional.”
Bill Leonard: Hospitable traditionalism
Local congregations are finding ways to thrive by developing liturgical and ministry-based niches in their communities while anchoring their identities in denominations, says the former dean of the Wake Forest School of Divinity.
Gradye Parsons: A more vital faith
There will be a “leveling out” in the future as the emphasis shifts from clergy, buildings and the white middle class to a more empowered lay leadership, a variety of venues and a more expansive view of “who God has called to be God’s people,” says the stated clerk of the PC(USA).
Michael O. Emerson: Cracks in the Christian color wall
Large Protestant churches are more than twice as likely to be multiracial now compared to a decade ago. Why is that? And what does it mean for the rest of us?
Will Willimon: Anything worth doing for God is worth counting.
There may be churches that don’t care about growth. But these can’t possibly be Methodist.