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
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
Last fall, at a gathering of ministry leaders who are all part of a Lilly Endowment grant program called “Christian Parenting and Caregiving,” I went to a workshop led by Craig Gould, the program director at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. His workshop
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
At a conference this month I heard John Bucher talk about our intrinsic love of stories. He described how our love affair with story goes deeper than we think. We are created from stories; we’re formed by them. We need stories to mirror back our reality—parables, fables, songwriting, novels,
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
