I was standing in the checkout lane at our neighborhood grocery store, waiting to pay while the checker scanned the things in my cart. She’d greeted me with a disinterested “hello,” but then turned to the bagger next to her to talk. And what she talked about, openly, was
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
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
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
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
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.
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
We have become a selfie culture—at least once today you’ll either take a selfie or see someone else doing the same. Some people have turned it into an art form. While in Southern California last week to get my (Rick) daughter situated in a new off-campus apartment before she starts
Because ministry is centrally about relationships, we see the whole human spectrum of behavior—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Like other people-serving roles (police, physicians, counselors, social workers) it’s tempting to give in to jaded assumptions. We find ourselves expecting the worst in people. We’re quick to get frustrated
One key to building relational bridges in a divisive and isolating culture is simple – we notice what we notice about others, and gently (but intentionally) pursue them using what we see as our entry point. In this Reachable Reconciliation conversation, Fred tells a perceptive story about the obvious things that escape
In the church (and often in the wider culture) power carries with it unwanted baggage. But effective leaders use power to create positive change and thriving environments. Power in the positive sense is what the shepherd wields to encourage his flock to move to safe pastures, where they can get
In one of my first parish assignments, I knew I was going to miss a big event soon after I assumed my staff role—the celebration of First Communion. I had a pre-existing conflict with the date. So, in the weeks leading up to the celebration, I talked with my assistant
Ministry and mission were humming in the congregation. Average weekly worship attendance was booming, and we had just completed a capital campaign during the worst economy in 40 years. Following that capital campaign, we had pulled a new 12,000-square-foot multi-purpose Community Life Center out of the ground and positioned it so that
It seems counterintuitive, but the abundance we see in all aspects of our lives has as much to do with strategic deletion as it does with adding things to our efforts. I was a farmer in my first life—growing almonds in the Central Valley of California. My life revolved around
In my previous article, I focused on change and how it affects our lives. I also mentioned that change and conflict are important, if not vital, to growth. In this post, we’ll look at conflict and its unique relationship with change. Conflict serves many healthy purposes—it is… In my book, Thriving
