Summer Projects Use the summer to make improvements by Richard Hong We are almost at summer. Time to exhale, right? Relax – a little. But September is coming, and now is when we should start making the changes we want to have in place for the new program year. I don’t know where I… Read more »
June 8, 2018
The Church for Today
Summer Projects Use the summer to make improvements by Richard Hong We are almost at summer. Time to exhale, right? Relax – a little. But September is coming, and now is when we should start making the changes we want to have in place for the new program year. I don’t know where I… Read more »
What Good Is a Vision without a Path? You can’t tell a congregation where to go if you don’t tell then how to get there by Graham Standish In the King James Version of the Bible, there’s a lovely phrase that’s been quoted often by those teaching church leadership: “Where there is no vision, the… 
Not Yet Do you have a ‘growth mindset’? by Richard Hong I’m seeing a lot of decisions made at all levels of the denomination, as we struggle with negative overall trends. What distresses me about the decisions are that so many of them seem to presume that continued decline is inevitable. I don’t… 
Like a hired hand A Revised Common Lectionary resource for April 22 by Magdalena I. García ‘The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away — and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.’ – John 10:12 Read the… 
It’s SOCIAL Media… not an electronic bulletin board by Richard Hong You’ve felt the pressure. The church needs a Facebook page. Should we be on Instagram? But while many churches are trying to have a presence on social media, most are being ineffective. And the primary reason they are failing is they are forgetting… 
Snail mail still works Thinking through technology’s uses by Richard Hong My first job was in software development, creating the first-generation of programs that replaced laboratory notebooks with computer systems. Our clients expected that computerization would solve their problems. But we had a saying: “The computer doesn’t do it better, it just does… 
And the Walls Came a Tumblin’ Down What ‘walls’ do we need God to tear down in our lives? by Rebecca Lister And the walls came a tumblin’ down. These words came to me the other morning as I was listening to an interview by the author of a book entitled The Line Becomes a… 
Going backwards How church entryways have changed by Richard Hong In March 2016, our historic sanctuary was destroyed in a three-alarm fire. After five months of worshiping in “portable” locations, we returned to our gym, which we outfitted for use as a worship space until our sanctuary can be rebuilt. Last month we took… 
Finding God in the Junk Drawer A much-needed reminder to ‘watch for God’ by Donna Frischknecht Jackson God spoke to me the other day. I wasn’t standing on some mountaintop. Nor was I lying prostrate on the floor. I wasn’t even kneeling in the quiet of the old sanctuary of the little rural church… 
Called to discipleship A Revised Common Lectionary resource for January 21 by Magdalena I. García And immediately they left their nets and followed him. – Mark 1:18 Read the full lectionary passage here Jesus called disciples: Simon, Andrew, James, and John, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Martha, and Susanna, and they immediately left their nets, without objection,…