Lutheran CORE’s Congregations in Transition ministry (CiT) was launched back in 2019 to assist Lutheran congregations who are contending with the shortage of available pastors to serve their churches. This…
I admit my tendency to often base my columns on the insights and observations of other writers. No doubt some of you question whether I have any original thoughts, opinions…
“Keeping an International Perspective While Living in an Increasingly Secular Culture” The signs were there, even before this pandemic. North American culture seems to be moving toward an increasingly secular…
With the Delta variant reminding us that this pandemic will be around at least into 2022, many congregations are facing the fact that they will not be seeing a significant…
I was going to write about the challenge of discipling online worshipers. However, that topic will need to again wait for the next issue of this newsletter. Why? Because something…
From a Washington Post article on March 29, 2021: “Church membership in the United States has fallen below the majority for the first time in nearly a century … First…
Editor’s note: Congregations using music, videos, and other items downloaded from the internet should check on whether they have copyright permission for streaming them over the internet as part of…
What an incredibly difficult ten months this has been for so many Americans. In addition to the struggles many of us had with life in general pre-COVID, a recent national…
A personal confession: I was, prior to retirement, a programmatic pastor. In my defense I wanted to increase the percentage of church members who were active rather than passive. And…
You might say we are beginning to witness the proverbial straw that is about to break the camel’s back. The camel, in this case, is the Protestant ordained ministry. (Including,…