32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.           (Acts 4:32-33) This text from Acts about the first actions of the early church has been put to many purposes in the last 2,000 years.  To our knowledge though, it has never been applied to church board meetings. Rec ..read more

Over the next few weeks, our team will share with you several signs and examples of vitality we’re seeing in ministry contexts nationwide. With such a diverse network (approximately 1600 pastors, 24 denominations, a majority people of color), it’s a joy to witness surprising movements of the Spirit as well as common threads of what God is doing in such vastly different contexts. A few years ago, a Mainline Protestant colleague told me that in her congregation, the two things people didn’t want to talk about were politics and Jesus. So, she was decidedly trying to reintroduce “Jesus” to the ch ..read more

In the last two weeks we have been exploring a conversation triangle – one way of visualizing where church board discussions get stuck and how they can be helped to move deeper.  Every group conversation has at least at three points:  content, individual experience, and common work.  We discussed content last week and will address common work next week.  This week, though, we want to talk about the role that personal experience and expression play in the group discussions and discernment of church boards. No one comes to a church board meeting ready to serve the church at ..read more

Ministry is incredibly – and increasingly – complex. Let’s name this and own it. AND let’s keep going. There’s too much at stake, and your calling to ministry matters. It’s having a ripple effect that will extend beyond what you assume or imagine. You’re planting seeds for trees that will shade generations well after yours.  Friends, keep going. The Lord is with you. And so are we.     The Opportunity of a Lifetime “This is a God-given opportunity for every pastor and every congregation that follows Jesus Christ. In countless corners of our culture, people are seeking what, at ..read more

Last week, we shared a conversation triangle, a diagram that can help you analyze where your church board meetings get ‘stuck’ and improve the flow of discussion in future meetings. At their best, church board meetings move dynamically among the three points that form this triangle:  content, individual experience, and common work.  (At their worst, they get stuck on just one point and never move at all.)  Over the next three weeks, we will take a closer look at each point on the triangle, starting with content. There is significant theological grounding for the centrality of c ..read more

This happens in church board meetings.  A discussion is going well, with many contributions, and then one member speaks up, powerfully and at length, about how the issue has impacted them personally.  It touches on their grief, fear, pain – something deep and very difficult.  The group listens with empathy, but, as the person continues to talk, the momentum and spirit of the larger conversation is diminished and then lost completely.  What happened? Another time, another meeting.  After two or three people have offered initial thoughts, someone who is an expert on the ..read more

How do you measure the vitality of a congregation? Ask almost any denominational body over the past several decades, and they’re bound to say something about the three B’s – bodies, budgets, buildings. The assumption seems to be that the fuller the pews on Sunday mornings, the more plentiful the pledges, and the more freshly renovated the fellowship hall, the healthier the congregation. I’ve talked to some church leaders who actually have to use these metrics when submitting monthly “vitality reports” to their bishops. Even research firms like Barna and Gallup draw on similar data when they p ..read more

Quick survey:  what in your life is mostly the same as it was, say, 10 years ago?  Hopefully, relationships have endured and grown, along with other values, convictions, and callings you deem essential.  But what about other, less crucial things?  Do you have the same cell phone you did in 2014?  Are you driving the same car?  Living in the same space?  Sitting on the same furniture?  Eating and drinking the same amounts of the same things?  Wearing the same clothes? It’s a good bet that some of these things are, in fact, the same, while others hav ..read more

The Church proclaims the greatest love story ever told.  God pursued God’s people throughout the ages.  God sent God’s own son into the world out of indescribable, incomprehensible love.  Jesus lived, loved, suffered, and died…but He rose again.  And after appearing to many, He ascended into heaven where He sits at God’s right hand and intercedes on our behalf.  The end.  Nope!  That is not the end of the story!  The Church was born because the love and the power of God was poured out.  The Holy Spirit was sent and is on the move. Someo ..read more

The legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City.  Yet, when Simon & Garfunkel first went on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and Mr. Simon was asked where he was from, he spontaneously lied and said “Macon, Georgia.” It sounded like a real place with a real meaning, he later said, not just someplace waves were passing through. Almost forty years ago, Pope John Paul II was concluding a visit to Australia.  At the conclusion of celebrating mass there for a final time, he said: Faith is our source of joy. We believe in a God who created ..read more