Tag: Church Matters

  • Engaging Everyone in Church

    Our primary operating assumptions need to be: Church is the people not the building. Every part of the church (the people) is essential. Every person has gifts. In baptism, we are all equal. Our expression of church should match our operating assumptions. My series on engaging everyone in church argues that every single one of…

  • Finding the Perfect Scam

    Finding the Perfect Scam

    It’s Stewardship Season, the time of year most dreaded and hated by Episcopalians and other Mainliners because we are terrible at asking for money and even worse at reminding people that they promised to give money.  So we are always on the lookout for the best system that will do the work for us: the…

  • 8 Keys to engaging pre-teens in church

    8 Keys to engaging pre-teens in church

    I wrote a while ago about engaging children in church.  Now I’m tackling that in-between age: the pre-teen. First off, I don’t intend to give a firm age range for this group.  I think you know it when you see it.  Your 9 year-old might be more teen-like than your 11 year-old. Parents of pre-teens struggle with…

  • 4 keys to engaging children in church

    4 keys to engaging children in church

    At a lecture in Atlanta recently, the Rev. Sam Portaro, author of Brightest and Best points out that “Children are actually written into Scripture.” They weren’t supposed to be seen.  They were property.  But Jesus spoke to them, healed them, accepted their donations, and told His disciples to be like them. We never take that last…