Just showing up
I am more convinced than ever that showing up is one of the most important things we can do. As a minister serving a new faith community, I have been faced with many opportunities to be present for a...
View ArticleSometimes, churches need to ‘die’
A 100 year-old plus-mainline-congregation closes its doors. The church dies. What’s left? An empty shell of a building and a disbanded group of church members. Many have predicted the death of mainline...
View ArticleAre there good reasons to start new congregations?
A quarter of a century ago I moved to South Carolina in response to the call of the largest Baptist body in that state. Baptists of various tribes in South Carolina lacked a commitment to starting new...
View ArticleWhat do you get when you focus on conflict? More conflict!
I’m sure you have probably heard the old adage that says Baptists are like alley cats. You know what you get when cats fight an alley on Saturday night? More cats. Conflict is similar to this because...
View ArticleHumility: A key to postmodern faith?
I never expected to land on humility as an emphasis of study in postgraduate work, but it makes sense. Ever since God called me to vocational ministry, I’ve been interested in the intersection of...
View ArticleCBF and the emergence Christianity movement
Last week I attended the Emergence Christianity event in Memphis featuring Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and others. The emergent crowd is an interesting group, with lots of...
View ArticleAm I Emergent-Baptist?
I minister on the periphery of Baptist life, trying to start a progressive Baptist church in the heart of the old empire. I’m old enough to remember well the Baptist wars of decades ago, and yet new...
View ArticleChurch planting: time for new terminology?
Susan Rogers serves as church planter and pastor of The Well at Springfield in Jacksonville, Florida. The Well at Springfield is self-described as “a community of faith seeking to practice the way of...
View ArticleGrandma’s never coming back
Each time I returned to my grandparents’ home, I felt like I needed an arsenal of anxiety medications to get me through the feelings of emptiness, sadness and yearning for what used to be. My...
View ArticleWhat if a generation of women in ministry planted new congregations?
It is hard to believe it has been more than 35 years since I was ready to leave seminary in Louisville, KY for what I thought would be my first full-time church pastorate. Although I had grown up in...
View ArticleMegachurch trends we small churches must face
The appeal of the megachurch is undeniable: big building, large worship setting, youth and children’s programs, and a semi-celebrity pastor. Yet many smaller churches have not learned from their large...
View ArticleWhy I am so passionate about starting new congregations
Note: In a recent post I talked about the role of women in ministry regarding church planting. In this new post, I focus on my personal passion for starting new congregations that is foundational to...
View ArticleNow that we have eliminated evangelism, let’s work on eliminating evangelical
In some moderate to progressive denominations it is all about the “E” word. Either these denominations vilify certain “E” words and seek to eliminate them from the proactive movement of the...
View ArticleThe glass ceiling for women in ministry only slightly cracked
I recently returned from the Exponential church planting conference in Orlando where I spent time thinking about women in ministry; especially women in church planting. I sat in on all three workshop...
View ArticleAll denominations should care baptisms are down among Southern Baptists
The first response of many people may be “I don’t care”. That’s fine. You have that right. But you ought to care. More about that later. Keep reading. Why Are Baptisms Down Among Southern Baptist...
View ArticleIs your denomination slowly committing suicide?
For decades we have known that persons who smoke multiple packs of cigarettes per day are slowly committing suicide. Many of these people did not want to commit suicide. Some claim they did not know...
View ArticleShallow congregations only take off their shoes and socks
Since they only plan to wade into the shallow end of the pool, or a few feet into the river, lake or ocean, the typical congregational participant only needs to remove their shoes and socks. And we are...
View ArticleGreat Commission and Great Commandment without synergy?
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001? I do too. That is a morning very difficult to forget. I was sitting in the lobby restaurant of a hotel in a...
View ArticleJust showing up
I am more convinced than ever that showing up is one of the most important things we can do. As a minister serving a new faith community, I have been faced with many opportunities to be present for a...
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Sometimes, churches need to ‘die’
A 100 year-old plus-mainline-congregation closes its doors. The church dies. What’s left? An empty shell of a building and a disbanded group of church members. Many have predicted the death of mainline...
View Article