Our Vibrant Faith team just returned from our first in-person retreat of the year, where (among other things) we focused on the foundation of our calling as a church-serving organization. To do that, we revisited the priorities and passions of Dr. Merton Strommen, the ground-breaking academic who founded Search Institute
I met Dr. Scott Thumma years ago, at a Future of the Church gathering when I served on the executive leadership team at Group Publishing. He was then, and still is today, professor of sociology of religion at Connecticut’s Hartford International University, and co-director of the Hartford Institute for Religion
Early in her career, sociologist and author Brene Brown was on a mission to deconstruct the “secret sauce” of connectivity. “By the time you’re a social worker for 10 years,” she says, “what you realize is that connection is why we’re here. It’s what gives purpose and meaning to our
Parents, even in ever-decreasing numbers, are the lifeblood of the church. Their children help us keep our standard programs running yet one more year. And they represent our primary volunteer pool for so many church activities. A church without an “inlet” of new families is, by definition, stagnating. So, on
Over the last two decades writers have churned out millions of words, maybe billions of words, mapping the sobering decline of the church in America. I’m certainly responsible for tens of thousands of those words, first as editor of GROUP Magazine for more than 30 years, and now as blogger-in-chief
Antwuan Malone is a young-adult pastor and the founder and Executive Director of ELEVATE.YA. In an insightful piece posted on the ministry news service Faith On View, Malone explores the underlying reasons young adults have abandoned the church, and offers insightful onramps for reaching them, then inviting them back into
The diminishing ministry skill that is most threatened in church culture is, simply, listening… I just named it a simple skill, but that doesn’t mean the effective, transformational practice of listening is what people generally think it is. Transformational listening is not a passive pursuit, like a catcher waiting for
A long time ago, I decided to live my life with Jesus by jumping into mud puddles instead of over them. A mud puddle, in my own strange vernacular, is anything Jesus said or did that we typically ignore, avoid, struggle to understand, or forget. The story of the Canaanite
My friend and longtime pastor Tom Melton once shared with me a sweet memory from his early parenting. As a young father he carried his toddler son into a swimming pool for the first time. As the water crept up around them, his son clung to him more desperately. And
What’s it like for parents to raise children today, especially if a growing relationship with God is important to them? And what can ministry leaders do to help? These are the two questions we’re trying to help the ministry leaders explore in our 4th–Soil ParentingProject, supported by the Lilly Endowment. We’re asking
I’ve been leading deep-growth experiences for groups—from a few people to thousands—for more than two decades now. I’ve learned that when we are leading people in a ministry environment, we’re less like technicians and more like artists. That’s because our chosen “medium” is people, and our art form is relational.
As ministry leaders our primary influence is stored-up in the treasure-house of our presence. Just as the presence of God in our life transforms us, our presence in the lives of those we serve has a kind of “radioactive” impact. We radiate the treasures of our soul when we interact
In his famous TED talk, author and former ad man Simon Sinek argues that the genius of successful companies is that they start with why. Unlike most of us, who try to win a hearing by explaining what our organization does, world-class innovators like Steve Jobs start with the purpose
Summer moves at a different pace in our church communities. Some ministries are on hiatus and others are in maintenance mode. And while we may not intend to do so, this may include our hospitality ministries. As we look ahead to the fall, now is the time to consider what
I’ve heard a crazy rumor for years… Legend has it that church ministry slows down to a sabbath-y pace in the summer. My husband and I have been part of a handful of churches, in both volunteer and paid-staff roles. In all that time, we’ve experienced the alleged slow-down with just
I’m walking closely alongside two sets of parents who are raising young children in this world. I’m constantly struck by how different the shape of their lives is from what mine was when I was in that season of life. First of all, I’m just amazed by how much equipment
Last month I had lunch with a ministry leader—I get to see her in-person only a couple of times a year, so it was so good catching up. We lost track of time; for almost four hours we talked about life, ministry, faith, and everything in-between. We were well into
Last weekend I was driving around town ticking off my to-do list and listening to an episode of This American Life, the much-acclaimed public-radio storytelling show hosted by Ira Glass. I catch the show mid-stream as Boen Wang, a 20-something Asian-American man describes the impact of his early life growing
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence Welcome to our post-election reality—the immersive division and polarization of our culture, our cities, and our neighborhoods continues. Already-strained relationships now have new news to swallow and wallow in. And all of us face new challenges as we follow Jesus into “love your
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence All relationships have seasons of tension—and sometimes discord and division. In church ministry and pastoring relational tension comes with the territory. Shepherding would be easy if the sheep behaved themselves and got along. But that’s not reality. And when tension or discord surfaces
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a shorthand way to spotlight our need for the advance of justice in our culture, and for our call to reconciling relationships. Many academic institutions, and many public/private organizations, now have DEI departments and executive-level officers. But,
We’re people created in the image of a triune God, and that means we’re fundamentally relational. That also means we’re in constant need of repair in our relationships—we hurt others, and they hurt us. So, how do we navigate when repair is needed in a relationship? In this Reachable Reconciliation
Summer moves at a different pace in our church communities. Some ministries are on hiatus and others are in maintenance mode. And while we may not intend to do so, this may include our hospitality ministries. As we look ahead to the fall, now is the time to consider what
Last month I had lunch with a ministry leader—I get to see her in-person only a couple of times a year, so it was so good catching up. We lost track of time; for almost four hours we talked about life, ministry, faith, and everything in-between. We were well into
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence We have so many micro-interactions with people throughout our day—co-workers, family members, random people on the street, service workers, and on and on… In all these relational connections we have the latent capacity for seeding redemption, grace, and even healing. For real. So
Recent research reveals that 40 million Americans who used to go to church no longer do… These are the “nones”—people who are disaffiliating, deconstructing, reconstructing, and de-churching. People who once included churchgoing as a normal part of life, but no longer do. For the first time, in the eight decades that Gallup
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence Some people are simply hard to “unlock.” Their body language, tone of voice, facial expression, and relational “posture” all converges into one simple message: Leave me alone. And, mostly, we oblige by leaving them alone. What we miss is an opportunity to connect across
Parents, even in ever-decreasing numbers, are the lifeblood of the church. Their children help us keep our standard programs running yet one more year. And they represent our primary volunteer pool for so many church activities. A church without an “inlet” of new families is, by definition, stagnating. So, on
What’s it like for parents to raise children today, especially if a growing relationship with God is important to them? And what can ministry leaders do to help? These are the two questions we’re trying to help the ministry leaders explore in our 4th–Soil ParentingProject, supported by the Lilly Endowment. We’re asking
I’m walking closely alongside two sets of parents who are raising young children in this world. I’m constantly struck by how different the shape of their lives is from what mine was when I was in that season of life. First of all, I’m just amazed by how much equipment
What do we actually know about what’s going on inside the faith-life of the parents in our churches today? On some level, they’re longing to raise their children to know and love Jesus, but how is that going for them? Vibrant Faith has been asking these questions in a variety
In 1997, Lutheran pastor Dr. Merton Strommen and his wife Irene founded The Youth & Family Institute in memory of their son David, a young seminarian and youth worker who was killed by lightning while leading a youth trip in the Colorado mountains. The name of the Institute was
In Vibrant Faith’s ongoing Fourth-Soil Parenting Project, we coach church ministry leaders to: Honor (uphold) parents as the primary faith-forming agents in the lives of their children. Experiment with new ways to support and encourage parents to live out and talk about their faith in Jesus in daily life.
Parenting tips, strategies, and philosophies are well-resourced in our culture—through books, seminars, social media, and online resources. And in the contemporary church we’ve always been focused on the needs, developmental pathways, and spiritual formation of children. But, in many ways, we are just waking up to the needs, developmental
The old saying goes: “The church is always one generation away from extinction.” Typically, we use that sort of “fear leverage” to double-down on attractional ministries for children and youth. I’ve heard ministry leaders use the “one generation” mantra to argue for the importance of church/parachurch-based ministries. But I’ve never
I know, “program-ification” is not a real word. One of our Vibrant Faith Coaches, the Rev. Erik Samuelson, made that up. On our team, we all like it. And we know that you know what we mean when we say it. We’re curious—has Christian faith formation been mixed up with
