There’s been a lot of buzz recently about the state of health and happiness among the people who lead U.S. congregations. One widely-circulated blog post expounded on the stresses and strains that led one pastor to call it quits – not just from his church, but from the profession itself. The responses to that post…
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused strain on religious organizations and their leaders. They have been challenged to keep members safe, while also contending with the politicization of the pandemic. They have had to develop or strengthen their online presence while often facing declining attendance. Resources of time, money, skill, and diplomacy have been stretched to…
No – those aren’t coronaviruses you see! They are connections between congregations! As much as we all may feel isolated these days, you have likely also been discovering just how interconnected your world is and how much we all need each other. And that goes for congregations, too. The ecology in which your congregation is…
Many students of congregational life focus their attention on religious gatherings in the city. It’s where the action is! Where there are exciting challenges and new opportunities. Where your innovations will get noticed and rewarded. But what about the thousands of gatherings in tiny places that we imagine are doomed to nothing but decline? Pastor…
Over the last couple of decades, the field of practical theology has increasingly drawn on methods from the social sciences. Most especially, people seeking to understand the theological wisdom of a community have practiced ethnographic methods for gathering information and analyzing what they find – much as we describe in this website on ”studying congregations.” …