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 parents’ faith should be on …
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 …
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”). …
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 …
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 in Connecticut, once or twice …
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 the work we did in …
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 outreach. At Vibrant Faith our …
By Dr. Nancy GoingDirector of Research & Resource Development In the emerging research spotlighting the impact of pandemic-induced social isolation, the outcomes are sobering. Writing in a Frontiers In Psychology report, authors Giada Pietrabissa and Susan G. Simpson report: “The most common psychological disorders emerging are anxiety and panic, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, insomnia, digestive problems, as well as …
