Archives

Completing The Circle

On his second day as association minister for the United Church of Christ, David McMahill received three phone calls from lay leaders who were looking for resources on “how to evaluate our minister.” He knew of several churches in which a poorly constructed process for evaluating the ministers had spun out of control, however, and […]

Connecting Diversity in Community

American society has never been more culturally diverse and rich, yet our communities are sadly fragmented. People with unique heritages and perspectives live side by side, but seldom interact with each other in any meaningful way. In many communities, our churches physically occupy the center of a town or neighborhood, but they are not necessarily […]

Finding Christ In The Book Of Order

In this new book William E. Chapman explores the theological framework of the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Chapman, author of History and Theology in the Book of Order: Blood on Every Page, illustrates how theological implications can be overlooked when the Book of Order is viewed solely as a kind of operations manual. Well suited for […]

Focus Your Vision

How can we find our direction, our purpose? When we combine our energy and passion with our focused visions, we give ourselves direction and power. Dewitt Jones’s newest release, Focus Your Vision, encourages us to develop our visions and turn them into reality. When we connect with our visions, and in doing so, release our […]

God’s Vision, Our Calling

From start to finish, the Bible indicates that there is a clear and direct connection between God’s long-term vision and our immediate calling. Using Ephesians 4:1-6 as a base, award-winning Bible study writer and educator Janice Catron skillfully uses Old and New Testament passages to explore six aspects of our calling as Christians – relationships, […]

Healing The Heart Of Your Church

The statistics documenting pastoral unhappiness and frustration are everywhere. Most surveys indicate that eight out of ten pastors consider themselves discouraged in ministry. What s more, most pastors have heard the super ministry success stories and have tried to implement many of the same principles in their church only to see the same failed results […]

Holy Conversations

Planning can be challenging in the contemporary congregation, where people share a common faith and values but may have very different preferences and needs. Much of the literature on congregational planning presents it as a technical process: the leader serves as the chief problem solver, and the goal is finding “the solution to the problem.” […]

How I Changed My Mind About Homosexuality

“I appreciate the opportunity to address you this morning. I am going to speak about my change of mind on the question of homosexuality, what I have learned theologically in that process, and some implications for us as a church.” And thus Dr. Rogers begins his simple, yet startling presentation to the 2003 Northwest Regional […]