Sunday
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The Imperfect Science
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5 min read
God is perfect, but our worship isn’t, despite what we might think. The seemingly fixed nature of our worship belies the truth: worship throughout history has been spontaneous and full of joy. We have gone through eras, particularly the medieval period, in which liturgy (the work of the people) was done in a language unknown to its…
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Fixing What We Got Wrong
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2 min read
My mentor during seminary, The Rev. Darren Elin once remarked that we get our two biggest holidays backwards: we celebrate Christmas the night before and Easter the morning after when it should be the other way around. Boy was he right. This is my first Christmas in 5 years in which I wasn’t one of…
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Church: Club, Community, or Neither?
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3 min read
Awhile back I wrote about how much I hate announcement time. Go back and take a look at it, because I feel justified in saying that. Announcement time, as I’ve experienced it in the several congregations I’ve served has, for the most part, been a horrible train wreck. This is mostly the case because it is…
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Just Cut the Church Programs
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5 min read
For several weeks I’ve been writing about engaging different groups in church. Then I wrote about dealing with time constraints and what it means for planning. Now, I am making a personal appeal for an entirely different approach: it is time to get rid of our programs. As Phyllis Tickle adeptly outlines in The Great…
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8 Keys to engaging pre-teens in church
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6 min read
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…