If the thought of planning another church Christmas pageant leaves you nauseous, you might want to pick up a copy of the above book. Details at the aptly named Church Marketing Sucks.
Anyway, last week on Twitter when we did that week’s “most clicked” list, I noted that we seem to have kept many readers from the PARSE days, based on the links you find most interesting, so this week we have an extra dose of church leadership articles.
- From the very outset, when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope on March 13, 2013, the name he chose sent a very clear signal…
- …And here’s the reason the Pope is in the U.S.A. right now…
- …Meanwhile, author Steve Wohlberg responds to the Pope’s visit.
- Essay of the Week: Does your house give off a Jesus vibe? If not, more plaques, and crosses and bumper stickers might do the trick. “These days, when I see an Evangelical whose life is a walking billboard for the Christian Ghetto, I immediately doubt they are what they say they are. They are trying too hard to be viewed as a Christian.” Warning: This article has a high snark quotient.
- Church Demographics (1): The back-and-forth transfer growth (which isn’t net growth at all) that happens in the modern, consumeristic church is compared to The Crusades as a tragic, black mark on church history. “Everything looks and feels great among these entertainment-driven churches. There’s some really good stuff that would work well in the business and marketing world. But something is also lacking, gravely lacking. The back door is just as wide as the front. Depth and sincerity are abandoned. Nothing is taking root in good soil. We’re not truly transforming lives and neighborhoods.”
- Church Demographics (2): “Just nine months prior, we had brought them onto our staff with only one assignment—to plan for their church launch and take as many of our members with them as they could. These four had done what we asked: they were taking 200 of our active members…Their lists included personal friends, favorite musicians, key volunteers, and leaders. People I did not want to lose. Leaders whose absence would leave significant gaps. This was going to be much harder than I had thought.”
- Church Demographics (3): 10 Predictions about the future, and no, Carey Neiuwhouf doesn’t think it’s going to be all about online church.
- Church Demographics (4): The last Catholic priest in residence departs Antarctica. (64-sec. video)
- How to crash your computer’s Bible concordance: Donald Trump has a favorite Bible verse, the one that says “Never bend to envy.”
- Pastoral Transitions: A pastor who names his own successor is usually breaking an unwritten rule, but one writer defends that process. “The solution isn’t to build a better search committee, but for pastors to understand that their leadership is vitally important at that vulnerable point in the life of a church.”
- Plagiarism watchdog Janet Mefferd is back on the air. The new one-hour format launched last week, and initial guests included Ken Ham, Tony Perkins and Max Lucado. Give it a listen.
- Someone sent me earlier to a New York Times article about “boy play,” and while skimming the article, I noticed a serious omission. “Since Afghanistan is governed by sharia law, which forbids sodomy and sex before marriage, how do news organizations explain this Muslim culture’s long history of men forcing boys into sexual slavery?” That quotation is from Terry Mattingly at Get Religion, to whom the omission was also glaring.
- Anne Graham Lotz reflects on the loss of her husband Danny as an example of the hurricanes life can throw at us.
- No, as a matter of fact I don’t plan to stop raising awareness of imprisoned U.S. pastor Saeed Abedini in Iran. In this update a family member was recently allowed a visit.
- Blog Item of the Week: This writer sees the methodology used by the American megachurch akin to an athlete using performance-enhancing drugs.
- Equal Time: Timothy Keller responds to three popular objections to the doctrine of divine election. (No, Mr. Trump; not that type of election.)
- Church Planter Dilemma: It’s a church plant. Everybody is new. So how do you come up with an elder’s board? “Just because a person was an elder in another church, is older, or used to be a pastor, does not mean he should be an elder in your church.”
- Agree or Disagree? 5 Reasons why kids should be in the main (adult) service on a regular basis. Sample: “Imagine the culture shock of a child who has been in church all of his life but has never been in the main service.”
- You don’t hear the term too often, but the ‘pastor-scholar’ should not exist in one writer’s view, because they are two different callings.
- An update on the statue of Billy Graham planned for the U.S. capital.
- When you think “Christian media” you might not think of the organization that Wikipedia describes as “The largest Christian media organization in the world, it uses medium-wave or high-powered AM and shortwave transmitters, local FM radio stations, cable, satellite, Internet, and mobile device technologies. Currently, their programs can be heard in 160 countries in more than 230 languages and dialects.” Revisit Trans World Radio.
- Video Venues: Robert Morris has decided the people who attend the 4:00 PM service will no longer be seeing him preach live.
- I don’t know journalist Mary Katharine Ham from Fox News, but was so sad to read of her husband’s passing.
- Brian C. Stiller, the Global Ambassador of the World Evangelical Alliance, reports on his trip to Albania.
- Parental Advisory: The new Muppet Show debuting on ABC is for adults, not kids.
- First Persona Account: A reporter is sent to Nazareth to profile a controversial teacher named Jesus.
- New Music Artist of the Week (1): The band Stars Go Dim and the song You Are Loved, which appears on the new Wow The Hits 2016 releasing Friday. (Couldn’t find an official video for this; will update if anyone locates it.)
- New Music Artist of the Week (2): Known simply as NF, the song I’ll Keep On is also one of the bonus tracks on Wow The Hits 2016 releasing Friday in North America. (Powerful, powerful lyrics.)
- Humble + Hungry + Hustle = H3. For a few more days enjoy some extras when ordering Brad Lomenick’s new leadership book in quantity.
- Not the Official Video Department: We were looking for this particular worship song for C201 last week, and found what is the strangest juxtaposition of audio track and video images. (No animals were injured in the making of this worship song.)
- This pastor spent most of last week inside a space capsule.
- Too bad the disciples didn’t have camera phones; that leaves it up to artists to provide us with images of Jesus, and these 9 are kinda creepy.
- Finally…
…We’re going to assume by this that North Point Community Church topped the Outreach Magazine list again this year. (Yes, they did.)
We apologize. A link appeared here earlier in the day from a blogger who has specifically asked us not to use his material.
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