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 core question. It’s a question …
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 core question. It’s a question …
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 their kids’ lives. With our …
(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 of 12 weeks. The teams …
In Dr. Dwight J. Zscheile’s seminal book The Agile Church, the professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary lays out an alternate vision for churches that have struggled to respond to a rapidly changing culture and widespread decline. Learning churches, says Zscheile, are about fostering spaces in which people can learn, practice, and play. …
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 be ramping up our work …
Christian Parenting is Gold- Laura Kelly Fanucci Read More »
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 below contrast with the “success …
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 God and to one another”). …
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 movement and influence in their …
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. We wanted one final “listening …
