Senior Writer’s Block
As summer wraps up, churches and ministries are busy gearing up for a new programming year. The approaching fall season offers fresh opportunities to re-engage and re-energize church members. It’s an ideal time to welcome new people, recruit volunteers, conduct community outreach and strengthen the church body. Your congregation might already kick off fall with…
The long-awaited summer months bring warm days, family vacations and — unfortunately — waning church attendance. Is summertime church involvement an oxymoron? A Herculean challenge? It doesn’t have to be. Read on to discover a dozen hot tips for keeping church members engaged all summer long. A Look at Summertime Church Involvement Your church programs…
Disaster preparedness should be a crucial part of every church’s facility management plan. By prioritizing disaster planning and recovery now, your congregation won’t be caught off guard when a catastrophe hits. Emergency preparedness doesn’t mean your church body isn’t trusting God to meet its needs during times of crisis. Instead, disaster readiness is a form…
By December 1, you’ve probably been hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations, lights and ads for weeks. And as a church leader, you’ve probably been planning Advent and Christmas worship services since late summer or early fall. But really, can people ever get enough of Christmas? Should the season and what it represents be…
Ironically, not all pastors are fans of Pastor Appreciation Month, Clergy Appreciation Sunday or whatever title their churches use each October. They’d prefer that the effort to support pastors be ongoing, even automatic. That’s because clergy appreciation goes beyond the occasional “thank you.” It involves making tangible efforts to meet a range of needs for…
Politics and preaching don’t mix, most people assume. But do pastors really need to steer clear of political topics and cultural debates? Should ministers and teachers reveal their political leanings during sermons and Bible classes? Is it okay to address tough issues that divide modern-day congregants? These questions often arise in America’s churches, especially as…
Summertime in ministry often means moving time, particularly for pastors in the Methodist tribe who criss-cross the country just before July 1. If you’re passing a moving van on the highway any time between June 15 and the Fourth of July, there’s a pretty good chance a set of John Wesley’s journals is somewhere inside. But it…
The belief that a congregation might sing in a courageous manner was suggested first, as far as I know, by one of the world’s great preachers, John Wesley (thus the interest for pastors). In his “Directions for Singing” in Select Hymns (1761), he advises congregations to “sing lustily and with a good courage.” In point…
I’ve heard plenty of pastors say they’re “not comfortable” preaching from the Old Testament (OT). And some will say they rarely preach from the OT texts, usually with a highbrow tone that implies, “I am one of the enlightened ones; only publicans still preach from that dusty, arcane, irrelevant and hopelessly out-of-touch body of work.”…
Christmas Eve is almost here, but we know it’s been on your mind for a while. You started planning sometime in September or October, psyching yourself up for the big night like a pro football player prepping for the Super Bowl. You ordered the manger-themed bulletin covers and decided to get a few more than…
