I’ve added a page with a list of Bible research materials I like to use. I was organizing my Favorites and thought I should share my discoveries.
The information available for free is amazing. Now, if I could just find a decent contemporary online commentary …

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I stumbled across an article by Dub Orr, a retired elder for the 11th and Willis Church of Christ, that I just have to share. But first, a little background.
Whether the topic is church growth or church survival, in the Churches of Christ, the elders make or break a congregation. We often say that [...]

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Josh Hunt recently sent out a newsletter pointing out how the little things often make a huge difference in church growth. Now, the big things are big for a reason, but even if you get the big things right, the little things can kill you.
Here’s his list of little things many churches need to [...]

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Here’s a fascinating statistic from chapter 5 of Beyond Megachurch Myths — 21% of megachurch members volunteer weekly in community service. Ten percent of megachurches have over half their members active in community service on a weekly basis!
Wow!
Plainly, challenging our members to actually serve the community — people are who not part of the church [...]

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One of the most difficult tasks of any leader is training additional leaders. After all, leaders are busy, and taking the time to train someone else is not immediately productive. It takes time — often years — for the person being equipped to be as well equipped as the leader doing the training.
And yet, Thumma [...]

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Rick McKinley is the pastor of Imago Dei, the Portland, Oregon church Don Miller writes about in Blue Like Jazz. This link will take you to an interview of him by Christianity Today.
Good reading. It’ll challenge your conceptions about how to do church!
http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2007/cln71224.html.

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Thumma and Travis review the various styles of megachurches, concluding that they fall into four categories, each with a different “what matters most”:
* Old Line/Program Based: Maintaining the witness in the present location. An evolutionary approach to change. Stewards for the next generation of worshipers in this place.
* Seeker: Reaching those that are seeking God. [...]

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Did you enjoy the video? Someone sent it to me in celebration of the birth of my Savior. And do you know what I thought? I thought, “That man’s worshiping with an instrument!”
And then a whole bunch of other people joined in. And so I thought, “The whole congregation is worshiping with an instrument!”
And then [...]

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Somewhere. Not here in Tuscaloosa, in the deepest of the Deep South. It hasn’t snowed much here in years.
For readers in snow-challenged locations like mine, here’s a little electronic snow to help your Christmas cheer.
(Your monitor is working just fine.)

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According the Thumma and Travis, only 34% of megachurches have no denominational affiliation. However, far more present themselves as nondenominational. Why?
Denominational names carry with them preconceptions about style, theology, and worship formats. Megachurches want to be judged by what they have to offer, not on the latest announcement by the denomination’s national office. … As [...]

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I thought some of you might enjoy this website. My oldest son is working on a musical based on the Russian Civil War. The story wrestles with some questions important to Christians.
The music is, I think, incredible. But you have to realize that the mp3s on the site include background music for dialog, so you [...]

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Well, it’s been nearly 11 months now since the blog started. I was barely aware of what a blog is (still not quite sure), but friends kept pestering me to put my writings on the internet. I figured I’d post the stuff I’d already written and maybe post something new every quarter or so.
I was [...]

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Enjoy this.
We’ll consider the theological implications after the 25th!

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Well, the pagan New Year’s Day is approaching, and so it’s time for year-end kind of stuff, like this preview.
I’ll be working on the Church Growth series based on Beyond Megachurch Myths for the next several posts.
After that, I’ll be taking on the newly published book Richland Hills and Instrumental Music: A Plea to Reconsider. [...]

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A few days ago, I asked the readers how often they’d like to see new posts. Some said daily (more more). Sorry, but I do have a church, family, and job. I can’t keep up that pace!
Others like a weekly pace, like Al Maxey’s. But most are happy with the every-third-day pace.
I’m going to keep [...]

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I’ve earlier written about the importance of the church as community, several times. This is not only a theological imperative (that is, a command of God) but also a great cultural need in modern America. People are so individualized, so lonely, that they need something to belong to.
Thumma and Travis comment (p. 16),
Out of necessity [...]

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I started this series out mentioning that I was reading Beyond Megachurch Myths, a recent statistical study of American Protestant Churches having attendance of 2,000 or more each week on average. I’m finished now, so it’s time to return to the subject.
I was drawn to this study because it’s fairly scientific. The authors compiled survey [...]

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I just discovered that my software can give me a list of the posts that received the most hits in the last 30 days. The “Top Posts” window in the right-hand column lists the most popular posts for the last 2 days only, which is hardly representative.
I was really surprised at the results, as (not [...]

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I’ve set the blog software to publish a new post every third day. I had been posting whenever I wrote something, but I think that sometimes I was posting faster than many people care to read. And so I’ve been trying this every-third-day thing.
Al Maxey posts weekly. Ed Fudge posts about twice a week. RollBamaRoll [...]

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To even consider adopting such an approach, an eldership should consider at least the following:
Ministers should help develop policy. While policy is from the owner (Jesus), through the elders, to the staff, it just won’t work unless the minister is part of the design team. (That’s according to the Carver model. I’d actually say that [...]

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