Instead of wrestling with their parents in the back pews during worship, toddlers at Grace Lutheran Church, Apple Valley, Minn., sit up front in the sanctuary. They’re stationed a few…
In July 2017, the research firm Barna Group released “The Most Post-Christian Cities in America,” a report based on surveys of 76,505 adults in 100 American cities. The results? Portland-Auburn,…
Have you ever wished that giving to your congregation was an easier process? Even if your congregation has implemented online giving, you may have found yourself wanting to be able…
Parents of small children are likely to have a long do and don’t list for worshiping as a family: Don’t tear the pages out of the hymnal. Don’t climb under…
Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian and ethicist for many years at Duke University, once served as a weekend financial stewardship consultant for a Baptist congregation in Texas. He explored the unusual…
I grew up going to a Lutheran church several times a week, and it was one of my favorite things to do. I still love a good Lutheran liturgy, but…
Children today are, as we well know, increasingly tech-savvy. They are practically born with iPads in their hands, and, yes, they bring them to worship. We are often slow, congregationally…
Because liturgy is a way of living God’s story, giving our human response to that story and sharing that story, the more we expand our worship life, the richer we…
More than attendance The purpose of including and encouraging children in church—as well as their parents—is not to “improve our numbers.” It’s to get the gospel into the marrow of…
I often hear churchgoing baby boomers like me say, “We don’t have any children in our church.” The implications are sad and clear: Our congregation won’t continue long beyond us….
It’s a Tuesday night. People are gathered in a back room of a restaurant in downtown Tulsa, Okla. Amid the pouring of refills and clearing of plates, someone begins to…
I entered Epiphany Lutheran Church in Milwaukee on a Pentecost Sunday in the late ’60s. As a curious young man reared and baptized Baptist, it was strange to hear someone…
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