Insights| Church Life & Ministry | Jan 12, 2024 As church leaders plan for 2024, they should keep these statistics and trends in mind for their congregation. By Aaron Earls There’s nothing magical about beginning a new calendar year, but it does provide a natural opportunity for reflection and planning. Looking back at recent research can give pastors … [Read more…]
My wife pointed this video out to me, and as we realized that it could be a great resource for Sanctity of Life Sunday for any church, I thought I’d link it here. As a reminder, Sanctity of Life Sunday is January 21, 2024.
Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni In the realm of pastoral work, the dynamics of teamwork can be as intricate and challenging as they are in any corporate setting. Volunteers and ministerial staff must come together to fulfill a shared mission. Pat Lencioni’s book, “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team,” … [Read more…]
Ok, time for a confession. I love video games. I have played video games on a somewhat regular basis since I first sent Pac-Man flying across the screen gobbling up pellets and power pellets on my Atari 2600. From there, I swung across alligators in Pitfall, moved on to the NES as Mario and Link, … [Read more…]
At one point in my ministry, I ran across an interesting church situation: A quaint country church who couldn’t seem to keep a pastor. This church, like many of our SBC churches, was a smaller church outside a small population center. The 30ish congregants were farmers and blue collar families with an average age around … [Read more…]
One story that always intrigues me in Scripture is the story of Elijah. No, not that story. We all love to look at the story of Elijah (1 Kgs. 18), standing resolute before the prophets of Baal and Asherah, calling them out for not being able to get Baal’s attention to consume the sacrifice only … [Read more…]
In 2019, an interesting study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In this study, the authors investigated changes in the brain caused by social isolation. It has been well established in other research that animals experiencing social isolation experienced negative changes in their brains’ structure and function. These authors wanted to see … [Read more…]
The recklessness with which we approach ministry makes the work harder and can hinder people from coming to Christ and growing in maturity. By Luke Holmes A new world record was recently set for marathons. A 50-year-old runner known as “Uncle Chen” finished a marathon in China in under three and a half hours. That … [Read more…]
Over the past two posts, we’ve been discussing where we should camp out and where we shouldn’t in terms of coping with anxiety and fear. In the last post, the focus was on how to deal with it when we have to camp in challenging places. This concept is not foreign to Philippians. As Paul … [Read more…]
If you’re a pastor facing your failures and having a hard time moving forward, these morsels of gospel hope in Mark 14 are for you. By Mark Dance Do you ever wonder why God keeps calling morons into the ministry? As I ask this, I’m not looking around the country. I am looking square into … [Read more…]