How Churches Are Dealing with the Current Culture Crash
by Dave Travis
It’s time for us to talk about some issues in our culture. For the past two years in all of our gatherings with pastors we have heard questions like:
“How are you going to address same sex-marriage in your congregation?” That usually gets followed by a real life example that is not a wild hypothetical/cut-and-dried type situation story.
Or “How is the hook-up culture impacting the teens in your church?” or how about “What is our response to immigration?”
And others.
So this year our NINES online conference themes address these issues and a few more. We know that pastors and leaders are pondering these issues, but haven’t quite found the way to communicate their views both clearly and honestly.
We are going to meet these issues head on during our Global Online Conference The NINES which takes place next week. Read on for more details.
Five Changes in U.S. Congregations: From More Diversity to More Drums
by Warren Bird
The face of religion across the United States has recently changed in five primary areas. These shifts were identified by a national survey conducted in three times over a 14-year period. The recently released findings covered congregations that are Protestant, Catholic and other traditions from Mormon to Jewish.
The overall trends:
1. Size. Since 1998 (when the first wave of the survey was fielded) American congregations have, on average, either remained stable in size or have somewhat shrunk. Averaging all faith groups together, median attendance at all weekend worship services is 76. Yet at the same time the average religious service attendee is experiencing a congregation of increasing size. This speaks to the widespread rise of large-attendance churches. According to Leadership Network research, almost 1 in 5 US Protestant churchgoers attends a church with an attendance of 1,000 or higher.
A couple weeks ago I was speaking to a group of missional city leaders in Oklahoma City and said that I wanted to read our vision for city transformation and began to read.
“Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – to bring about a thriving city – one person, one family and one neighborhood at a time.
Here are the principles of how we live that every day…
Volunteers Join to Pack 4 Million MealsUMCSWTX.ORG–At the end of five days, with the help of thousands of volunteers, University United Methodist Church and partners provided more than 4 million meals to the hungry of the world.
It was a feat that could not have been accomplished without the involvement of other community churches, said the Rev. Will Rice, pastor of communications and outreach for the church.
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