I’m guessing you might have noticed that there are fewer children in many churches these days. The number of children in our Sunday schools is declining—for some churches, so dramatically that they wonder whether they should continue to keep it alive. There are also many churches that have more or
Let’s do a little reverse-engineering… As ministry leaders, we know that spiritual transformation always happens in the context of relationship. That’s true theologically and experientially. When we say “relational ministry” it’s really a reiteration—all ministry is relational, and all relationships invite ministry. And the Trinity spotlights the mechanics of the
Americans are navigating a cycle of disillusionment with religion, and more specifically, the Christian church. But new research shows why it’s important to frame this “decline” as a cyclical journey, rather than a linear trend. More and more, the people in your community are re-thinking the cost of abandoning their
In Eighth Grade, writer/director Bo Burnham’s quiet sledgehammer of a film, Kayla is a socially awkward girl with her own YouTube channel, posturing herself as a savvy dispenser of advice on how to navigate life. Her faux-confident persona barely hides her fragility. Kayla’s single dad is working hard to reach
At an international gathering of ministry leaders called Simply Jesus, I interviewed 15 leading Christian influencers, all of them well-known practitioners of the way of Jesus. Each of these short interviews was fueled by a simple prompt: Who is Jesus to you? What I heard from this diverse cohort of
Soil matters in botany… And it matters even more in ministry. At least, that’s what Jesus believes… 🙂 Consider the mysterious circumstances leading to the death of our new Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree, murdered in the prime of its life… I transported this beautiful little tree to our home, bought from
We have a bluebird house in our backyard, left over from the previous owners. In the three years since we moved in, we’ve had nests in there every year. This year, a hyper-protective mama bluebird moved into the nest with her mate and hatched a family. And every morning and
New York Times reporter Lauren Jackson has spent a year deep-diving into America’s religious landscape, publishing regular updates through the paper’s “Believing” project. On the heels of a major joint study by Harvard and Baylor researchers called “Promoting Human Flourishing,” Jackson highlights one of the “three B’s” that (she says)
For more than 30 years, Vibrant Faith has worked to deepen the crucial partnership between home and church. Over and over, in too-many-to-count conversations, we’ve wrestled over how to make that partnership actually work. And we know that you know this partnership struggle is real. Yes, parents (and people who
I’m guessing you might have noticed that there are fewer children in many churches these days. The number of children in our Sunday schools is declining—for some churches, so dramatically that they wonder whether they should continue to keep it alive. There are also many churches that have more or
Let’s do a little reverse-engineering… As ministry leaders, we know that spiritual transformation always happens in the context of relationship. That’s true theologically and experientially. When we say “relational ministry” it’s really a reiteration—all ministry is relational, and all relationships invite ministry. And the Trinity spotlights the mechanics of the
Americans are navigating a cycle of disillusionment with religion, and more specifically, the Christian church. But new research shows why it’s important to frame this “decline” as a cyclical journey, rather than a linear trend. More and more, the people in your community are re-thinking the cost of abandoning their
In Eighth Grade, writer/director Bo Burnham’s quiet sledgehammer of a film, Kayla is a socially awkward girl with her own YouTube channel, posturing herself as a savvy dispenser of advice on how to navigate life. Her faux-confident persona barely hides her fragility. Kayla’s single dad is working hard to reach
At an international gathering of ministry leaders called Simply Jesus, I interviewed 15 leading Christian influencers, all of them well-known practitioners of the way of Jesus. Each of these short interviews was fueled by a simple prompt: Who is Jesus to you? What I heard from this diverse cohort of
Soil matters in botany… And it matters even more in ministry. At least, that’s what Jesus believes… 🙂 Consider the mysterious circumstances leading to the death of our new Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree, murdered in the prime of its life… I transported this beautiful little tree to our home, bought from
We have a bluebird house in our backyard, left over from the previous owners. In the three years since we moved in, we’ve had nests in there every year. This year, a hyper-protective mama bluebird moved into the nest with her mate and hatched a family. And every morning and
New York Times reporter Lauren Jackson has spent a year deep-diving into America’s religious landscape, publishing regular updates through the paper’s “Believing” project. On the heels of a major joint study by Harvard and Baylor researchers called “Promoting Human Flourishing,” Jackson highlights one of the “three B’s” that (she says)
For more than 30 years, Vibrant Faith has worked to deepen the crucial partnership between home and church. Over and over, in too-many-to-count conversations, we’ve wrestled over how to make that partnership actually work. And we know that you know this partnership struggle is real. Yes, parents (and people who
I’m guessing you might have noticed that there are fewer children in many churches these days. The number of children in our Sunday schools is declining—for some churches, so dramatically that they wonder whether they should continue to keep it alive. There are also many churches that have more or
Let’s do a little reverse-engineering… As ministry leaders, we know that spiritual transformation always happens in the context of relationship. That’s true theologically and experientially. When we say “relational ministry” it’s really a reiteration—all ministry is relational, and all relationships invite ministry. And the Trinity spotlights the mechanics of the
Americans are navigating a cycle of disillusionment with religion, and more specifically, the Christian church. But new research shows why it’s important to frame this “decline” as a cyclical journey, rather than a linear trend. More and more, the people in your community are re-thinking the cost of abandoning their
In Eighth Grade, writer/director Bo Burnham’s quiet sledgehammer of a film, Kayla is a socially awkward girl with her own YouTube channel, posturing herself as a savvy dispenser of advice on how to navigate life. Her faux-confident persona barely hides her fragility. Kayla’s single dad is working hard to reach
At an international gathering of ministry leaders called Simply Jesus, I interviewed 15 leading Christian influencers, all of them well-known practitioners of the way of Jesus. Each of these short interviews was fueled by a simple prompt: Who is Jesus to you? What I heard from this diverse cohort of
Soil matters in botany… And it matters even more in ministry. At least, that’s what Jesus believes… 🙂 Consider the mysterious circumstances leading to the death of our new Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree, murdered in the prime of its life… I transported this beautiful little tree to our home, bought from
We have a bluebird house in our backyard, left over from the previous owners. In the three years since we moved in, we’ve had nests in there every year. This year, a hyper-protective mama bluebird moved into the nest with her mate and hatched a family. And every morning and
New York Times reporter Lauren Jackson has spent a year deep-diving into America’s religious landscape, publishing regular updates through the paper’s “Believing” project. On the heels of a major joint study by Harvard and Baylor researchers called “Promoting Human Flourishing,” Jackson highlights one of the “three B’s” that (she says)
A quarter-century ago I worked with family ministry pioneer Ben Freudenburg on his groundbreaking book The Family-Friendly Church. Together, we took a deep dive into Ben’s journey from conventional youth ministry to “home-centered, church-supported” strategies. Ben had struggled through a long season of ministry burnout, made worse by his disillusionment
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
