A look into how congregations use their facilities and the activities that they engage in.
A Family Crossroads: When Faith and Sports Collide (Part 4)
What might it look like if parents, coaches, and other leaders simply took time to wonder with their players and performers where Jesus might have been in their lives over the last week?
Eating with Tax Collectors and Sinners
Eating a meal together is a great opportunity to share Jesus. Casual conversation over food. I may be sharing my testimony. Or talking about what Jesus has done in my life or in my community of faith. Not every meal offers that opportunity, but that is what I am looking for in that time.
Discipleship in the Age of the Algorithm
It is 2026, so let us stop pretending. Your smartphone is probably doing more discipleship than your Sunday sermon. That hurts a little, but sit with it.
Who or What Has Your Heart?
What we worship begins to transform us. When we seek approval, honesty becomes harder. When we build our lives around possessions, we may begin measuring people by what they own. When comfort controls us, another person’s needs can feel like an interruption or distraction.
Findings from the 2025 Faith Communities Today Survey: Leadership
The 2025 Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey is the latest in a series of national, interfaith surveys conducted since 2000. In a series of articles, I’m sharing the results from the Churches of Christ who participated in the 2025 FACT survey.
Vitality Found Beyond the Church Walls
When a congregation actively serves its neighbors, something often changes within the congregation itself. They discover that faithfulness in the present is possible, even amid uncertainty about the future. Their imagination expands beyond institutional survival. They are reminded that God is already at work in their town, and that they are invited to join that work.
What Was Already Moving
I don’t think the waiting is empty. I think God is setting something else up.
Ostracism and Scapegoating
Jesus said that his followers ought to be “as wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16). Too many moderate Christians have forgotten the first part of this admonition.
The Folly of the Cross, Acts 26:22-24
Dying on a cross was synonymous with the ultimate failure and the greatest of curses. And yet, Paul taught in Colossians 1:18b-20 that Jesus' death on the cross was a cosmic victory of good over evil.
Silence
It suddenly occurred to me that I was engulfed in total silence. Even the overworked air-conditioning system was silent on this pleasant early October morning. I found it so rare that the experience caused me to think deeply. Here I was – silent before my Creator, who reminded me to “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Moving Beyond the Labels
In every turn, in every new moment, and in every disruptive event, there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it!
Who Were Those Guys?
It is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. A paralytic is healed by Jesus. But the most interesting thing is that he was carried on his cot by four friends. Who were those guys? What can we learn from them?
The Doldrums
When we are in a state of stagnation, we have hope because God is working even when we can’t see or feel the work being done.
Hope, Gospel, Mission, and Relationships: A Report From the Field
Church leaders live with hope. We are not alone. God’s preferred future is not a pipe dream. However, it will require us to relinquish our hold on the future and trust in God’s future.
‘To the Jews as a Jew, to win the Jews,’ Acts 21:26
God has called us to unity, not uniformity; understanding this is essential so that we do not judge one another.
Mentoring Without a Program
How many mentors have you had in your lifetime? Have you even had a mentor? I remember asking myself these questions early in my career, and at first I wasn’t sure how to answer them.
A Glimpse of the Divine Behind the Veil
As chaplains, our role is to serve as ambassadors for human dignity, stepping in to remind patients and staff of their inherent worth whenever they lose sight of it.
A Poet Out of Place
Through a visit with Nell, I found my stereotypes of homeless people challenged.
You Can Keep Your Thanksgiving and Joy
This was the moment I realized that what brings joy to one person may bring a sense of loss and distress to another. Then it led me to a deeper question…