A nominating committee is expected to present the church with five nominees to succeed Jefferts Schori. Likely candidates could include Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut, Bishop Shannon Johnston of Virginia and Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina. Under church law, presiding bishops must be able to complete a full nine-year term before hitting the mandatory... Continue Reading

If God is in the business of saving sinners, we need to expect that church will be full of sinners—those who are still wandering and those who have only just been found. If our churches reflect God’s heart for the lost, they will be full of people with problems, full of people showing the consequences... Continue Reading

“Pastors can be tempted to shift into neutral when the church doesn’t appear to be doing well. There are many ways a pastor can look like he is busy while accomplishing absolutely nothing. The fire is gone, and he just clocks time to get a paycheck. Pastor, fight this temptation with every fiber of your being... Continue Reading

There will be an abundance of qualified pastors for interim and bi-vocational positions. These Boomer pastors will not be idle. They will be seeking other ministry opportunities, particularly positions with part-time pay to supplement their incomes. Some Boomer pastors will stay at their current positions into their late 60s and 70s.    In an earlier article... Continue Reading

“The discipline was announced in a video last year that was shown on all seven of Harvest’s campuses and left online for two weeks. MacDonald said on Sunday, “It was seen by many thousands of people and damaged the reputations of these brothers. For this we are truly sorry.”   On Sunday, prominent pastor James... Continue Reading

When asked about potential “restoration” of the pastor and church, Setzler responded, “It is our hope that under the pastor’s leadership, the church would be led back to compatibility with the articles of faith we follow as a convention. Should the pastor and congregation arrive at that conviction and reverse their current stance on homosexual... Continue Reading

I call on churches and Christian institutions to stop thinking their organizational mission are actually missional.  If you simply maintain what you have, seek to insure its programs and property, and don’t realize a sense of dramatic urgency to our present cultural crisis then you will be swallowed up.  We must march, we must preach,... Continue Reading

The decision to leave the Church necessarily entails leaving a particular congregation, which could include leaving long-term relationships. Additionally, if the Christian Right were the cause of a decline in church membership, it would not explain the decline of Mainline Protestant churches, which have little connection to the Christian Right.   WASHINGTON — Contrary to... Continue Reading

Christ, the second Adam, “finished” (John 19:30) the work that the first Adam failed to do (Rom. 5:12-19). Because of that pivotal event, the church determined that for Christians under the new covenant, the day of worship and celebration of the Lord’s grace in Jesus Christ was to be the first day of the week,... Continue Reading

For years the edgy, blue-jeaned, hipster preacher used charisma and combativeness to barrel through turmoil, once bragging that he’d mow down all who questioned his vision: “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace, it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done,” he once said in... Continue Reading