To make loans more feasible for small congregations, the building fund said in a press release, it has increased loan amounts to $500,000, and the term may now be extended up to 15 years.
We expect our congregations to be places of health and healing, an oasis in the midst of the demands and stresses of daily life. Yet some people experience great pain in their congregations, pain that robs them of the comfort their faith could give them. Burnout is one kind of pain that goes against the very promise of congregational life.
The Church is an antidote to the alienation and complexity so commonly felt in other areas of life. Parishes that foster intimacy and simplicity create situations and opportunities that encourage common experience and storytelling.
Not all church coffee is bad, but the issue that poor church coffee raises is deeper and more troubling. It is that much of what we do as churches can often be described as substandard, second best, mediocre or weak.
When this partnership suffers, congregational worship suffers. When the partnership is flourishing, the way is clear for us to foster dynamic worship.
Last week’s Gay Pride parade in New York City featured the usual marching of parishioners of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, but this year’s parade forced congregants to think outside the box after Archbishop Timothy Dolan asked that the church not carry its name on a banner.
Casting a vision is hard work. The leader who rises to the challenge to cast a vision that truly inspires a congregation empowers members to embrace change. Wise leaders understand that the power of vision stems more from the vision itself than from the visionary.
Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix ministers where the city’s oldest Hispanic barrio meets the first Anglo suburbs and so lives in the center of the debate over immigration in Arizona.
“A seemingly simple phrase like, ‘The peace of the Lord be with you,’ turns into a major debate. We end up having to go back to the original texts, some of which are in Hebrew, to try to decipher exactly what the person writing that meant.”
The Alban Institute is one of the best places to look for help if you’re having troubles with the floating part. This week they have an article that lists specific areas that can make a difference between success and failure when working on managing the life of a congregation.