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How can I consider myself a member of this congregation if I don’t participate in the main thing they do?

It’s a good question, and many Christians are asking it. As Diana Butler Bass points out in an insightful interview with Deseret News, more and more believers are pursuing their relationships with God “away from church.”

How has the Church understood the concern about ecology and the topic of the environment in these last 50 years? What is the message of the Magisterium about an issue that has become more and more pressing and which, thanks to the Encyclical of Pope Francis, is now becoming an important chapter in the social teaching of the Church?

In Pope Francis’ recent environmental encyclical and in his many pronouncements since them, most notably his address to the US Congress and at the United Nations, he was in effect telling the world that the time has come for all of us to take a long hard look at a false god that has, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution been and continues to be venerated by so many.
 

I write with some alarm at what is happening in the United Church of Canada, a church that I have long admired. … I have written articles in praise of the United Church of Canada. It was the one Christian body in the world that seemed free of the need to be tied to the past, but was rather courageously open to the future.

Now to my dismay, a segment of the United Church of Canada has decided that it is no longer secure enough or open enough to contain one of its most creative, future-oriented pastors. I refer to the Rev. Gretta Vosper of the West Hill United Church in Toronto.

In a powerful speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday morning, Pope Francis pushed the United States to confront several political issues that tend to divide Republicans and Democrats, including immigration, climate change, the Iran deal, Cuba, poverty, and the death penalty.

“Innovation in ministry” is a recurring theme, one that I first began hearing forty years ago when I entered seminary. Even then, just 10 years into the precipitous and ongoing decline in mainline churches, it was clear …

Jesus, a cleric and a politician walk into a bar …

If that sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, consider the 3-ring circus of political debates and punditry already well underway 14 months before our next national presidential election. It is infused with religiously-motivated rhetoric that expresses itself in political terms.

“How we think about religion — even if we are skeptics or atheists — will spell itself out in how we think about society,” observes philosophy professor, David Galston. “In other words, our theology and politics are inextricably linked. The difference of course is that politicians get to enact their thinking as policy.”

If that is the case, should one consider a candidate’s religious bent when assessing the way they might make their political decisions? Absolutely! You can read more here.

… as many church leaders know too well, innovation can become threatening. Powerful constituencies push back, and things that manifestly need to be rethought take on a non-negotiable, do-not-mess aura.

Morality is more than abortion and gay marriage. Code-words such as “biblical morality” have been diluted in recent generations of American Christians to the point that almost everyone knows their new cultural meaning: such terms have become synonymous with being anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion, and little else. And that’s a shame– because morality is so much more than one’s position on gay marriage or abortion.

This will change the way you think about trusting humanity. The 9 countries that participated in this heart warming global Trust Experiment were Australia, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, Canada, USA, Spain, Italy & Belguim.

For those of us who are stripping ourselves of unnecessary religious constraints, baptizing ourselves in progressive Christianity, we approach in awe and terror a different God. Does God really love us unconditionally?

I want to make a basic point about Spiritual Development. But first I need to file two disclaimers: Spiritual Development isn’t an exact science and there is no one single path …

If there is one religious principle I would legislate, if there was one commandment I would like to see engraved over the entrance of every public building, it would be:
DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

If church leaders want people to “buy” their “goods and services’ — come to worship, take a class, engage with the community, grow in faith, serve God — they can’t just open the door on Sunday or send out a weekly newsletter stuffed with announcements. They need to do solid marketing. They need to do the basics as outlined above: catch people’s attention, explain offerings, present opportunities to engage, lead people to various forms of participation, form relationships, provide customer service.

Wolves once roamed the United States before decades of unregulated slaughter wiped them out. It wasn’t until they were missing that people began to recognize the crucial role wolves play in maintaining the health of the natural world.

You’ve heard it many times: “Experience is the best teacher.” And its corollary, “Failure is a better teacher than success.” Makes sense, but what does it actually mean for church leaders? Here are six keys to learning from experience.