Volunteers work at the community garden at Salem United Methodist Church. Photo by Glenn Stallsmith
Allen T. Stanton: Rural churches can thrive beyond numbers
Small churches learn to evaluate their growth by impact rather than attendance.
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Motivational hip-hop artist and painter Jerrold “Just Flo” Anderson in front of a mural he painted for the Whole Foods in Englewood. Photo by Jason Schumer/South Side Weekly
A church and community partnership helps bring fresh groceries to a Chicago food desert
The opening of a Whole Foods in the Englewood neighborhood was the culmination of a congregation’s multilayered efforts to respond to community needs. Top among them: Fresh, healthy food.
Lighting candles, drinking wine and eating challah bread are home-based practices for the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. Many American Jews, especially millennials, are rejecting institutional religion and instead are seeking guidance in practicing Jewish traditions. Bigstock / Photo by Ungvar
Barak Richman and Daniel Libenson: What is the role of the 21st-century rabbi?
The decline in religiosity among American Jews should prompt a reappraisal of how religious leaders are trained and deployed in Jewish institutions, say an academic and a practitioner.
Photo by Malerapaso
N. Graham Standish: What are the next chapters of your church's narrative?
Leading a congregation into the future requires understanding its story -- and helping it envision what new chapters might come next.
"God is Love" is a ministry of The Robloxian Christians church, which exists online.
Daniel Herron: Lessons from The Robloxian Christians online church
Does a virtual church for children and teens have any lessons for “real-world” churches? Yes, says the founding pastor of The Robloxian Christians.
Students and faculty from City Seminary of New York gather at Grand Central Station for a "Pray and Break Bread" event. Photo courtesy of Mark Gornik
Mark Gornik and Maria Liu Wong: 'Stay in the City' -- Christian faith in today's urban world
How will Christians live out their faith in a world that is more urban than ever before? The director and the dean of City Seminary of New York share what they’re learning as God brings Christians from across the globe to New York and other urban areas.
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Ginger Gaines-Cirelli: Sacred resistance is about our being, not just our doing
In her new book, “Sacred Resistance,” the senior pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., articulates how Christians can engage in the work of mending the world.
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Erin S. Lane: What kind of family is the family of God?
We’ve celebrated church as “family” without ever clarifying what kind of family we’re called to be, says an adoptive mother in this sermon. What kind of family is the church if not an adopted one?
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Dave Odom: Sometimes, congregations must back up and start again
If your ministry is no longer achieving its intended impact, it may be time to ask why. Probing a ministry’s purpose and progress may reveal that it’s time to reverse course and start again.
The Sunday Fellowship of West Concord Union Church celebrates St. Patrick's Day 2018 with a dance. Photo courtesy of Hannah C. Brown
Hannah C. Brown: We thought we'd done enough to welcome people with disabilities in our church. We were wrong.
West Concord Union Church had had a ministry for people with disabilities since the 1980s. But the congregation discovered that truly welcoming everyone would be complicated and costly -- and worth it.