How much “sameness” is enough and how much is too much? The devil, quite literally, is in the details. The Apostles expect a high degree of uniformity between the churches and demand a high degree of conformity.   Reformed churches not only have the regulative principle worship (RPW) to guide them regarding elements and forms,... Continue Reading

“Village Missions is almost entirely a revitalization ministry,” said Wechsler, who grew up in Long Island, New York, before attending a Village Missions church in Idaho. They don’t need to plant new churches, because there’s almost always an existing building with the remnants of a congregation.   Jeremy Sarver was a mama’s boy, so when... Continue Reading

Not everyone is as certain as Hinson-Hasty that a pastor shortage is pending – in part because another piece of the puzzle involves 50 years of declining membership in mainline Protestant churches. Over the past two decades, the PC(USA)’s membership has dropped from 2.63 million in 1996 to 1.48 million in 2016, a decline of... Continue Reading

This desire for perfect compatibility is a problem. And that makes sense for a generation that’s grown up in a consumerist society where there are limitless options of brands and apps and genres and communities that can be tailored and curated in a perfect-for-me sort of way. We approach the church with the same mentality.... Continue Reading

I hear from pastors and other church leaders thousands of times a year. Using this massive amount of information, I aggregated many of the comments related to discouragement. I attempted to quantify them and list them in order of frequency.   “Is this valley I am going through normal for pastors?” The question came to... Continue Reading

In many cases, a year will prove insufficient. This should not be a surprise because there is nothing magical about a year. There is no intrinsic power in the passing of 365 days and nights. A year gives us a date to put on a calendar, a reminder to enter into a task management app.... Continue Reading

Meaningful membership helps us to see who we have this day-to-day New Covenant relationship with and who we are immediately responsible for. Knowing who we are accountable to helps to clarify what and how we are doing. Membership helps us to see who we are accountable to and responsible for.   Church membership is a concept... Continue Reading

Though it may be tempting to simply encourage ministers to seek more relationships, many ministers are faced with a trade-off between quality and quantity. Those with a large number of very intimate relationships have a smaller overall social network, and those who form lots of relationships have impoverished inner circles. Failing to get the right... Continue Reading

What we can say, wherever you happen to minister, is that at some point you’ve got to share the gospel. You might run a food bank or a CAP job club but, despite the doling out of food parcels or CV writing, unless the gospel is at some point stated we have not been engaged... Continue Reading

Of course, we all know (or at least we should know) that worship is meant to be an all-of-life response to who God is for us in Christ (Romans 12:1; John 4:21–26). Just like breathing, worship can’t be limited to one portion of our day or one day of our week. We’re always doing it.   Sunday afternoon... Continue Reading