One summer afternoon in the mid-seventies, while waiting in the car for my mom to return from a errand, I reached a heightened pitch of boredom that only a 13 year-old girl can achieve. Fumbling around for something to read, I opened the glove compartment and found a pocket New Testament. That would have to do. That or the owner’s manual for a 1971 Buick Riviera.
Matthew Parris, an atheist, argues that only Christianity can save Africa from “the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset.”
Like evangelical churches around the country, the three churches have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade. But since September, pastors nationwide say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore: Bad times are good for evangelical churches.
Can you tell the Christmas story for radio or video in under 30 seconds? That’s was the challenge the Church Advertising Network gave churches, youth groups and individuals this Christmas. The winning radio was set to a YouTube video below.
Beyond Relevance tells a modern day parable about church marketing. What if Starbucks used church marketing?
Does the church ‘mean business’? Do we accept that our main business today is with meaning, the struggle to find meaning, and the mission to help people discover the gift of meaning through the good news that has Christ at its heart? Are we still in the business of being saved and saving others? I wonder sometimes because of the negativity or indifference with which many Episcopalians react to the very concept of being saved.
The statement “I’m spiritual but not religious” has a way of raising a wall between a regular, church-going sort of person and a friend who has no intention of becoming a regular, church-going sort of person. It says, “Back off. I know all about you ‘religious’ folks. You want to tell me I’m going to hell or imply there’s something wrong with me. Well, I have my own way of connecting with God. So shut up.”
The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon published an essay yesterday that asks congregations to try to maximize the possibilities for seekers to connect with them. He uses the metaphor of porches to describe what he calling us to do.
On YouTube, you can watch video of a chewing-gum sculptor from Romania and an office badminton match among cubicle dwellers. And then there are the videos of the Rev. Steven Rice, who ponders such theological questions as why we pray and whether observing the pagan ritual of Halloween is OK for Christians.
The Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy, a priest in the Diocese of Bethlehem (PA) writes of what it was like for a number of congregations in that diocese to set up an evangelism event at a regional gathering of GLBT people.