Ordained clergy seeking federal bail-out?

If George Barna’s predictions are true, many professional ministers may find themselves unemployed within the next ten to fifteen years as their congregations literally disappear into thin air. Research indicates that significant numbers of committed Christians are leaving institutional churches (IC) in favor of a less structured faith journey. Barna calls it a Revolution in [...]

Questioning Systems of Religion

Imagine growing up within an Old Order Amish community in Pennsylvania: a simple lifestyle, a deliberate avoidance of modern technology, a safe network of deep friendships, a strong work ethic, and the solidarity of a strong church community. What would happen if you choose to leave your Amish roots? A recent BBC television documentary, “Trouble [...]

Preparing to make the leap

The time is quickly approaching for my departure from professional ministry after devoting thirty-five years of my life inside the institutional church (IC). Several of my friends have tried leaving; in fact, a dear friend of mine broke the news today that he’s accepted a part-time pastoral position at a small Southern Baptist church. Another [...]

Nightmarish church leadership meetings!

Recently, I endured a four-hour meeting of our church’s leadership team. It’s a monthly nightmare where everyone on this twelve-person team puts forward their ideas to “improve” the church by adding programs, fixing potential problems, tweaking this and that, disbursing financial support, and discussing the merits of strange new pursuits that might be the magic [...]

Another reason why sermons are unnecessary

Have you ever heard or read an explanation of the following passage?
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall [...]

The Most Segregated Institution in America

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on Social Justice and the Emerging New Age at Western Michigan University. Following that speech, he received a standing ovation before fielding a series of questions by WMU’s President Miller. In that Q & A, he declared:
We must face the fact that in America, the church is still [...]

Lights, Cameras, Action :: Pass the Popcorn!

Christian Smith writes:
Dressing only in our best on Sunday mornings is not a big deal. But it is symptomatic of a problem that is a big deal. People bring to church too often only their nice selves, attractive selves, dressed up selves. Leaving our real selves, the selves our families see, at home and bringing [...]

Reasons why the church would be better off without clergy

Interesting title, isn’t it? I ran across an obscure article entitled Church Without Clergy by Christian Smith. He lists four problems with the clergy as a profession in the church:

God doesn’t intend such a profession to exist. There is simply and unequivocally no biblical mandate or justification for the profession of clergy as we know [...]

“Jesus is my boyfriend” music

Tonight, we must have repeated the chorus “I could sing of your love forever” until I finally just sat down in absolute disgust. Arghhhh! Amazingly the “worship leader” and the band just continued to play and sing, seemingly happy to be punishing everyone with eight to ten repetitions of each chorus. The only positive was [...]

A foot in both worlds

It’s Sunday morning. Not too many years ago—when we had a houseful of children—I can remember the youngest one asking, “Are we going to church today?” The oldest quickly replied, “Have we ever NOT gone to church on Sunday? Don’t be silly!” At the time, I never really thought about the significance of those six [...]

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