We live in a culture rife with undermined trust… Politicians, public servants, business professionals, and pastors are distrusted at record levels. The pillars of ethical confidence that undergird a functioning society are disintegrating. In the latest Gallup Poll measuring the public’s ethical ratings for 23 professions, less than a third
At a large gathering for organizations (including Vibrant Faith) that are involved in a Lilly Endowment project called Thriving Congregations, I led a breakout session for ministry leaders interested in reaching young people. Around the table were eight leaders from diverse organizations, all of them wrestling with the challenges brought
I know two young-adult girls who grew up in a rich and layered faith-ecosystem—diving into a wide variety of activities at church and fully invested in authentic, ongoing faith practices and conversations at home. They pursued depth in their relationship with Jesus, and treated their relationship with Him as the
The transformational power of the ancient rabbinical system—the one Jesus and His disciples knew so well—was its immersive approach to formation. The teacher-student relationship (Rabbi-Talmid) was framed by a simple concept: rabbinical students grow into maturity through relational immersion in their rabbi’s life. That meant that a Talmid who was
Yesterday, over coffee with a close friend, I traveled back in time to a season of our shared church life that now, in retrospect, seems almost mythic in its beauty and significance in our lives. In that long season we experienced the euphoria that wells up when you live and
Sue Phillips, a former Unitarian Universalist denominational exec and co-founder of the Sacred Design Lab, has written a sort-of “95 Theses” for the technological age and nailed it to the church’s virtual door. In her in-depth Harvard Divinity piece “The Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future,” Phillips tackles the tectonic shifts
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
Christian activist Shane Claiborne often tells the story of traveling to India to work with Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity, hoping to find “an old nun who believed Jesus meant what he said.” “Mother,” as she was called in the streets, was hard to pin down; it took
In Jonathan Haidt’s excellent new book The Anxious Generation, the NYU social psychologist maps the impact of two formation engines in the lives of Gen Z: “Overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world… are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”
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
These past few weeks have been filled with shock and grief after the sudden death of my sister. We, her family, are broken. My healthy, 61-year-old sister tripped and fell—so how do we make sense of that as the beginning of the end for her? We are riding the waves
You know the drill—especially before, during and after busy ministry seasons… “How are you doing?”someone asks. “Surviving,” you reply. “Juggling too much of everything!” That’s typically true and feels “correct.” But imagine if, instead, you replied: “I’m great! Fully rested.” Ever heard that kind of reply from your boss or
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,
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
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
How is the mission of the church, first handed to us by Jesus, defining and shaping our ministries? For example, the people who are showing up shape our missional focus—but what about the people who are not showing up? The absence of certain people, and the reasons behind their absence,
The world has a dwindling natural resource that’s been overlooked—it’s the skill of appreciation. You’ve probably noticed the difference in yourself when you’re around a leader who habitually appreciates the “wins” on your team, not merely camps on the “fixes.” New York Times columnist David Brooks, author of How to Know
f the culture we live in is the pond we swim in, some of the streams feeding into our pond carry toxins that pollute the water. These are relational toxins like betrayal, broken trust, wrong assumptions, and embedded lies. Sometimes these toxins are undetectable until we feel the impact of
A kind of sacred joy has always accompanied my celebration of Advent. But this year, as I prepared for our Advent journey, I carried a heavy weight in my soul. So much in the world is unsettled and disturbing. The war in Ukraine and now in Gaza marks, again, the
Business executives from around the world pay big bucks to attend seminars on “the Disney Way”—learning how leaders at this much-admired company build their culture, leverage business success, and treat their employees and guests. For a long time, the tech company Hewlett Packard has been known for its egalitarian, decentralized
Business executives from around the world pay big bucks to attend seminars on “the Disney Way”—learning how leaders at this much-admired company build their culture, leverage business success, and treat their employees and guests. For a long time, the tech company Hewlett Packard has been known for its egalitarian, decentralized
(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
View Post Are you like most ministry leaders—struggling with a tendency to say “yes” to everything? Yes to helping someone on our “off” hours (whatever that means), yes to helping out in another volunteer role, yes to an additional responsibilities, yes to another project? Our plate is often so full
There’s no question that our post-pandemic church life is different… We have shifted yet again, and not toward consistent church attendance or support of faith-formation programs for children. While we need to take a deep dive into our current cultural reality, the research work fueling our Thriving Congregations grant
We have just come to a new realization in our Thriving Congregations Project. Because of it, we moved our 27 Thriving Congregations churches from cohort coaching to individual coaching for our last year of work together. We did this because we’re embracing a new aspect of what it means to
To put an exclamation point on this series of posts related to our new 4th Soil Parenting Initiative, here’s a reflection that I wrote a few years ago. It strikes me as even more timely today… There they were—millions of them camped on the edge of the promised land. Moses
A blog dropped into my inbox this week with a lead-off question: “Why is it so hard to engage parents?” The blogger followed that with several really good answers and tips for doing things differently, including… These are true and great insights… As long as you believe the focus of
How are you currently engaging the faith life of parents at your church? That’s the next big question, isn’t it? As Vibrant Faith Executive Director Rick Lawrence and I have been interviewing churches for our Lilly Endowment-sponsored 4th Soil Parenting Project (see my last blog for the details), that’s been a
At Vibrant Faith we’re grateful to begin 2023 with a big announcement… Thanks to a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment, we’ll be leading a learning community of 20 churches from across the U.S. geographical, denominational, cultural, and theological spectrum to plant new ways to fuel parents’ faith impact in
(NOTE: We asked Angela Gorrell, author of Always On, to work with churches in our Thriving Congregations project as they sought to expand their online formational practices. Here are Angela’s reflections on what they learned together…) Two hopeful teams from two churches met online with me on Zoom over the course
Hello Friends! We want to share an amazing 54 minutes with you… In March of this year, we launched into a three-month deep dive into a wide array of listening exercises with Christian parents. As we move into 2023 you’ll begin to learn more about this project, and how we’ll
As we continue our work with the 28 Churches in our Thriving Congregations Project, we’re leading cohort meetings with them to reflect on their first set of “ministry experiments.” We’re exploring how these experiments furthered their growth in 10 broad areas of congregational life. Note how different the measures listed
