“How participatory is your church? Is your congregation feeding everyone with a sermon that’s been kept warm under a heat lamp or are there a number of fresh options for education and spiritual formation? Are you mostly presenting information to passive listeners or are you encouraging an environment where people interact with each other and... Continue Reading

In the coming month, the church will undergo small but critical moves to merge the two institutions and will officially launch a united congregation within the first few days of the new year. Charles will serve as the primary teaching pastor while Clifford will oversee all of the Christian education along with a weekday and... Continue Reading

As a leader in a local church and in other places, I got to the point where I did not entertain such veiled criticisms. I tried to be polite and say, “I am sorry, but I cannot listen to you further because you will not give me the specific sources of the concerns. If you... Continue Reading

“It’s difficult to see much more than the still-soggy ruins and drowned hopes of the once booming megachurch. “How did this happen so fast?” asks Rene Schlaepfer, pastor of Twin Lakes Church, a megachurch in Aptos, California. Watching disgrace devour other celebrity pulpits is always grim, he says, but this story hits home even harder.”... Continue Reading

“In early October, Church of Stanley’s congregation voted to affiliate with the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, a conservative denomination founded in response to the increasingly pro-LGBT policies of the PCUSA. Taken among voting members present, 79 percent of Church of Stanley’s congregation voted in favor of ending affiliation with PC(USA) and joining ECO, while... Continue Reading

But the sacred music of the season can be a nearly sacramental presence in our life, if we’re careful not to abuse it. And music has the unique power to add richness and depth and dimension and life to the Christmas cycle. But if we’re clumsy, if we don’t choose carefully, if we turn the... Continue Reading

We have never done it that way before. Yes, it’s cliché. But it’s still a very pervasive attitude among change-resistant people in the church… We have enough people in our church. This is a tragic statement by leaders of inwardly focused churches. And it is an excuse not to do evangelism and ministry.   If you want... Continue Reading

It was not as if these congregations chose the most theologically conservative new homes. The great majority of congregations leaving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) chose to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church or the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Few chose to join the larger Presbyterian Church in America, which does not permit women clergy.  ... Continue Reading

In the very next passage, the epistles goes on to say: So, then, did he [God], as one might suppose, send him [his Son] to rule in tyranny, fear, and terror? Not at all.  But with gentleness and meekness, as a king sending his own son, he sent him as a king; he sent him... Continue Reading

In brief, it is no longer possible for churches to provide tax-sheltered reimbursements to their pastors or other employees for individually purchased health insurance coverage. The churches may assist employees by increasing taxable compensation that can be used for anything (though they cannot increase with provision that the increase must be used for health insurance),... Continue Reading