By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence On Grammy Awards night a couple of weeks ago, iconic hip-hop pioneer, producer, and activist Jay-Z was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. He brought his teenage daughter Blue Ivy with him on stage, as “emotional support.” And then he called out
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
Marriage, it turns out, is a primary catalyst for human flourishing. And Christian marriages that value regular church attendance offer a clear bulwark against divorce… According to a new Gallup study and Get Married, the much-talked-about new book from Dr. Brad Wilcox (professor of sociology and director of the
“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
I have a new book coming out in June; it’s called Editing Jesus: Confronting the Distorted Faith of the American Church. In the ramp-up to the launch of the book, I’m trying something new. I’ve asked my college-age daughter Emma to do what she does best—post teasers about it on
By Fred Oduyoye and Rick Lawrence We move through life most-often assuming that everyone we meet is experiencing the world through a similar lens. The way we see things is the way they see things. And we’re surprised/frustrated/offended/shocked when we discover they don’t. So we quickly move to judgment
When you think about the families in your congregation, what do you hope they can become? If you consider their “floor,” what is their “ceiling”? Consider the curious case of “Bandit and Chilli Heeler” (above), the dog-parents on the international hit kids show Bluey. Their floor is already the ceiling
Almost 60 years ago Admiral Jim Stockdale was an officer and prisoner-of-war in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. He was imprisoned for eight years, from 1965 to 1973. While a captive he was relentlessly and ruthlessly tortured. But he survived this horrific experience, and the way that
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
Princeton Theological Seminary professor Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean has explored the emerging ramifications of a lack of passion and faith among young people in her book Almost Christian. Dean’s book spotlights the impact of the church’s decades-long embrace of a consumer-driven, “moralistic, therapeutic” alternate version of faith formation. Dr. Michael Brown,
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,
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
It’s a sad-but-true reality—we often see parents primarily as our church volunteers, not the faith-forming leaders of their families and homes. As we have begun to dig into the rich work of exploring and nurturing the faith life of parents through our Lilly-sponsored “Christian Parenting and Caregiving” research grant, we’ve
In our rapidly changing landscape, church leaders face the profound challenge of establishing and nurturing meaningful connections with parents and families. In the Barna study “Who Is Responsible for Children’s Faith Formation,” virtually all Protestant and Catholic church leaders agreed that the responsibility for a child’s formation starts with parents.
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
”The family is a proclamation of faith in that it is the natural place in which faith can be lived in a simple and spontaneous manner… It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods.” I
We know that parents are the “first witnesses of the faith” to their children. The way parents live out their faith as they interact with their kids directly impacts the way their children come to know, develop, and understand a relationship with God. Yet, whenever I’m talking about this reality
Every day brings a new reminder that—on both a macro and micro scale—we human beings have a very hard time getting along. Tension leads to division leads to a rupture in relationship… And that leads to harm, violence, and even war. Our natural ecosystem breeds relational weeds. And that’s why
We all know that reinventing how we do things is essential for keeping up in today’s ever-changing ministry environment. We’re always finding ways to adapt and innovate. But beyond the obvious reasons for continuous improvement, reinvention invites us into a deeper spiritual practice… At its core, reinventing ourselves requires an
In our Vibrant Faith coaching relationships with congregations, we often tell ministry leaders: “If you want to change your congregation, change what you talk about.” Our conversations must be aligned with our mission. Therefore, if we want to help our congregation live into its mission, then we have to make
Just a ballpark guess, but let’s say 95% of people hate conflict and will actively avoid it if they can. Of the remaining 5%, some relish conflict because they have bullying tendencies. And the tiny percentage that remains actually have a healthy, inspiring, and impactful relationship with conflict. They see
By Jim LaDouxDirector of Coaching & Coaching School “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” –Matthew 11:28 ESV The Sabbath moments of the soul are those brief glimpses we all have of unexpected wonder and unlooked-for surprise—the feeling of being ambushed by beauty. In
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard an important truism more than once, so maybe that’s a nudge to sit up and pay attention… We have to name the truth about our obstacles before we can overcome them. Naming the truth about our lives is just as important for
We already know, and have known for a long time, that “status quo” is never the goal of growing organizations or thriving faith communities. Stagnation is just the first stage in the death process. And yet, we can’t seem to quit the lure of entropy. Moving beyond the status quo
I live in the upper Midwest, and like many parts of the nation, smoke from Canadian wildfires has infiltrated our sky. It can turn the best day into a gray-sky day… Likewise, for the past three years since the pandemic, we’re living in a cultural gray-zone. I’m sure you, like
Every year, I read Cal Newport’s book,Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. It’s a book that helps me reset my intentions for the year, carve out time for the things that matter most, and let go of the continuous distractions of our cultural reality. All of
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
Our Vibrant Faith Coaching Team, working with the 28 churches that are part of our Thriving Congregations Project, is gathering insights and learnings from the ministry leaders who are partnering with us. One key takeaway so far: Honesty leads to thriving (we define “thriving” as “increasing our capacity to be present to
We know that faith formation is fueled by stories—when the story of Jesus is woven into our story, we find our identity in Him. So, in the church, we often talk about the power of stories for the development of faith. But how are we actually helping people experience God’s
In early May the Vibrant Faith team held a final meeting with representatives from the 24 churches who were a part of our Creating a Culture of Calling Grant. We’ve been working together since the Spring of 2017 working to build church vitality and unity through the culture of calling.
Over the course of our three-year Creating a Culture of Calling project, how did the churches involved actually embed calling into their culture? Here’s sampler that includes three churches planted in the Eastern U.S…. 1. They Hosted Dinners Just to Hear and Tell Calling Stories At Round Hill Community Church
Our Vibrant Faith Team spent three years immersed in helping churches create a “culture of calling” in their congregation—working under the umbrella of a Lilly Foundation grant, we built coaching relationships with 24 churches from seven denominations. First, we focused on teaching ministry leaders a theology of calling, sourced from
By Dr. Nancy GoingDirector of Research & Resource Development Leaders across the Christian Church are wondering if this season of pandemic chaos and trauma has given us a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a “reset.” In response, some are developing structural changes along with new patterns of worship and content delivery and relational
By Dr. Nancy GoingDirector of Research & Resource Development At Vibrant Faith we’re always talking with ministry leaders—here are the common questions we’re hearing right now, as the uncertainty of our post-pandemic (?) challenges settle in… Will families come back to our programs? How much bandwidth do our people have in
