What Two Simple Statistics Reveal about the American Church
The median church size is 75 people. The median church age is 73 years
Smaller churches are more normative than larger churches. Churches of 25, 50, and 100 are common. If you pastor such a church, you may feel abnormal because of the attention given to larger churches. However, it’s larger churches that are more the exception than the norm. Statistics never tell the whole story, but they... Continue Reading
Why Pastors Should Use More Historical Illustrations in Sermons
Most of us preachers tend to use real-life examples, current news, pop culture, or biblical examples more than historical illustrations.
History has roots. Personal examples in sermons are great ways to connect with people. However, they can be fleeting—if not shallow. Everyone laughed at the story of my son and the half-eaten cupcake, but—like the cupcake—it wasn’t sustaining. With historical examples, you tell an enduring story, one that has stood the test of generations and... Continue Reading
Under Pressure: When Your Minister Husband is Forced Out
Dear pastors and wives whose church wants you to leave, God will take care of you.
In our situation, I was truly shocked at the turn of events that took place. Then confusion set in as I analyzed every detail of the events that had unfolded. I was angry at the people I thought caused it all. My husband and I also felt alone. None of our friends had been through... Continue Reading
The Benefits of Listening to the Elderly
Hearing an elderly saint speak of losing loved ones and friends, and how they are heaven-ready, also helps us look beyond this age to the one that is yet to come.
He told stories about his life, his family, his work, and the community. Yes, because we have been friends for a number of years, many of these stories I had already heard. Some of them I have even heard numerous times before. And one or two of them were even repeated during the same car... Continue Reading
Church Membership Is Biblical
That there was such a thing as “church membership” in the history of redemption is another “good and necessary” consequence from Scripture.
The real question should not be “where does the bible teach church membership?” but rather, “where, after 1500 years of history in which there were church members before Acts, did the New Testament revoke church membership?” The history of Israel, the history of God’s old covenant people, is instructive. In the Old Covenant, God is... Continue Reading
American Religious Groups vary Widely in their Views of Abortion
Among those who do identify with a religion, the majority view about abortion among members of a particular group often mirrors that group’s official policy on abortion.
Only 35% of those who are part of the mainline Protestant tradition say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, with 60% in support of keeping abortion legal. Members of the Episcopal Church (79%) and the United Church of Christ (72%) are especially likely to support legal abortion, while most members of the... Continue Reading
Ministering to Millennials in a Secular Age
In the Age of Authenticity (think life post-1960s), the drive is to make sure—whatever else may affect our decision—that we are “true to ourselves.”
We all know sane, rational people, living much the same as we do yet believing radically different things….But none of them goes to your church on Sunday. There are no more singular, monolithic, obvious takes on the world. Belief has become less of an on/off switch, and more of a series of dials you can... Continue Reading
Public Response to Sovereign Grace Churches
SGC responded to my article and stated I was “mistaken” in my statements and that these concerns “are not true and have never been true”.
SGM has never publicly acknowledged or repented of these known failures to report. They have never responded with specificity to any additional allegations that fit the known patterns, outside of blanket statements that there was “no conspiracy” to coverup abuse, and that the civil lawsuit was a threat to their First Amendment freedom. In... Continue Reading
Sovereign Grace Disputes Rachael Denhollander’s Remarks
As former gymnast advocates for victims in the church, SGC calls her take on its past scandal “not true.”
As CT reported five years ago, the case against SGM claimed that the ministry had conspired to cover up abuse within its network. Back in 2014, Nathaniel Morales, a former youth leader at SGM’s flagship Covenant Life Church in Maryland, was convicted on five counts of sexual abuse against three underage male victims between 1983 and 1991. Mahaney, who... Continue Reading
Why Do Churches Cover Up Sin?
Let’s use this checklist not for past recrimination but for future self-examination, to purify our motives when we’re called to make judgments on serious cases
Personal blessing: Related to the above, many have been blessed through the man’s ministry. Some were converted under him. Others were called to the ministry through him. Still others were brought to see the glory of Christ in a new way. God used him to guide people through dark times. This creates a spiritual and psychological... Continue Reading
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