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
We all know: “You can’t draw water from an empty well.” And ministry is a water-depleting adventure, in the best sense of that metaphor. We give out of our “good treasure” to others. And we need a significant “inlet” for our spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing if we’re going
It’s been a rough four-year stretch for pastors and ministry leaders… The pandemic emptied the pews and profoundly disrupted community life. Almost overnight, the new norm demanded entirely new technological savvy and ministry improvisation. Division set into our congregations, with more and more people gravitating toward churches that function
I have a ministry friend who’s willing to take a chance on plugging people into leadership roles with (in my mind) very little vetting. I’ve often seen the messes he’s had to clean up as a result. It makes me cringe, but I also admire his willingness to take
For years we’ve been inundated with dire news and dire predictions about the “decline of the church.” As a journalist and ministry leader, I’ve been one of the inundators. But over the last few years I’ve stopped using the word “decline” and started using the word “pruning” to describe
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence All our relationships have one thing in common—broken people are involved, so broken things happen. That means reconciliation is a baked-in need, embedded in all aspects of our everyday life. When things go wrong we go into crisis management—the same way we respond
I was speechless as I listened to the teenager and her mom—and my silence was intentional. They’d asked to meet after the girl felt overwhelmed by an incident that happened in youth group. Because of a past personal trauma that is triggered in large gatherings, she’d been upset by something
In our post-Easter journey we have fresh memories of new faces, drawn to the church through the magnet of Holy Week. I just met a new young couple in our community. They sought me out because they want to pursue membership and needed additional information. Before the service was
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence Got a difficult person in your life? It’s hard to imagine you don’t—either at home or at work or at church… Unreconciled relationships with people who bring “thorn in the side” impact into our life can exhaust our energy and derail our good work.
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
We all know: “You can’t draw water from an empty well.” And ministry is a water-depleting adventure, in the best sense of that metaphor. We give out of our “good treasure” to others. And we need a significant “inlet” for our spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing if we’re going
I have a ministry friend who’s willing to take a chance on plugging people into leadership roles with (in my mind) very little vetting. I’ve often seen the messes he’s had to clean up as a result. It makes me cringe, but I also admire his willingness to take
I was speechless as I listened to the teenager and her mom—and my silence was intentional. They’d asked to meet after the girl felt overwhelmed by an incident that happened in youth group. Because of a past personal trauma that is triggered in large gatherings, she’d been upset by something
In our post-Easter journey we have fresh memories of new faces, drawn to the church through the magnet of Holy Week. I just met a new young couple in our community. They sought me out because they want to pursue membership and needed additional information. Before the service was
Other people are as important as you are. You likely know that. On the surface, we all know that. But how has this truth substantially changed how you lead? Are other people “important” in the same way background scenery in a play kind of matters to the foreground characters? What
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.
I’m telling this story backwards. Stay with me… I’m moving. Again. People who know me are laughing. When we bought our condo three years ago I declared: “This is it, we’re home. I’m never moving again.” Now this will be the sixth time my husband and I have moved
With church partners in our Fourth-Soil Parenting Project, we’re experimenting with new ways to plant and nurture a story-sharing environment in congregations. Why? Because discipleship and faith formation are profoundly hindered when people have not yet explored, acknowledged, and witnessed to their own story. As more people in your
We all know: “You can’t draw water from an empty well.” And ministry is a water-depleting adventure, in the best sense of that metaphor. We give out of our “good treasure” to others. And we need a significant “inlet” for our spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing if we’re going
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence All our relationships have one thing in common—broken people are involved, so broken things happen. That means reconciliation is a baked-in need, embedded in all aspects of our everyday life. When things go wrong we go into crisis management—the same way we respond
In our post-Easter journey we have fresh memories of new faces, drawn to the church through the magnet of Holy Week. I just met a new young couple in our community. They sought me out because they want to pursue membership and needed additional information. Before the service was
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence Got a difficult person in your life? It’s hard to imagine you don’t—either at home or at work or at church… Unreconciled relationships with people who bring “thorn in the side” impact into our life can exhaust our energy and derail our good work.
I’m telling this story backwards. Stay with me… I’m moving. Again. People who know me are laughing. When we bought our condo three years ago I declared: “This is it, we’re home. I’m never moving again.” Now this will be the sixth time my husband and I have moved
With church partners in our Fourth-Soil Parenting Project, we’re experimenting with new ways to plant and nurture a story-sharing environment in congregations. Why? Because discipleship and faith formation are profoundly hindered when people have not yet explored, acknowledged, and witnessed to their own story. As more people in your
If you’ve been involved in ministry leadership for more than a year (and that includes almost all of us), you know that weekly worship-service planning can devolve into a mundane, lifeless routine. The struggle is real—I’ve been there for the past four decades. So let’s break free from the shackles
“For more information, please check the bulletin…” How many times have you heard that instruction at church? More important, how many people never hear it, or are tone-deaf to it? Church Communication should move from impersonal to personal Many churches still rely on traditional bulletins and emails to communicate to
In our research work with churches across the country, we’ve “discovered” an obvious truth all over again—listening to people is a crucial spiritual discipline. In our Fourth-Soil Parenting Project, an expedition into fueling parent’s spiritual impact in their kids’ lives, we asked our 20 participating churches to launch this
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
When we gather with other ministry leaders, the conversations inevitably gravitate toward a common complaint—we disapprove of the way most parents allocate their time as a family. We’re frustrated by what parents prioritize over attendance at church or church programing. With our 4th-Soil Parenting Project, Vibrant Faith is helping
(EDITOR’S NOTE: At Vibrant Faith we’ve partnered with our team of ministry leadership coaches to name the obstacles and challenges the church has put in the way of a FAMILYING approach to the formation of faith. Check out a previous blog that sets the stage for this conversation with Obstacle
Ministry leaders generally agree that parents matter most for the formation of faith in their children, but nevertheless have multiple long-standing objections to this notion. These objections most often show up in the way leaders resist shifting their faith-forming paradigm from the church to the home. And, unconsciously, these objections
It’s maybe the oldest “shop talk” topic in ministry—Why can’t or won’t parents take responsibility for forming faith in their children? And, always threaded into this conversation, our common conclusion—This is why church and parachurch ministry leaders simply have to step in and teach the next generation of children and
