Principled and Pragmatic (Part II/II)
This essay is the second part of a two-part essay which first posted last Monday on the Forum. Part one can be viewed here. Principled and Pragmatic? There are certainly limitations in envisioning these two errors as extremes on a spectrum. It can give the impression that there is a solution for all ministry questions that balances perfectly on the spectrum between biblical principles and practical concerns. I don’t think this is the...
Principled and Pragmatic (Part I/II)
“Did you know that conversion rates for companies using custom visual content are 7 times higher than companies that do not?” I could hardly believe my eyes when I first read these words. They were in the subject line of a message sent to our church email account. I was relieved when, upon closer inspection, I saw that it was not from a parachurch ministry, and the “conversion” to which it referred was not of the spiritual sort....
Losing Our Souls: The Neglect of the Liberal Arts
In the past century, the liberal arts have come upon hard times. For some, they’re just not that useful for vocational success. For others, they’re associated with a harmful cultural elitism of the West. However, these critiques, and others like them, are neither quite right nor fair. Whatever our cultural or ethnic or socioeconomic background, and whatever our vocational realities or aspirations, the liberal arts are important. Far...
Reforming Youth Ministry
A LifeWay study recorded that 70% of young adults stop attending church after graduating from high school [1]. Another study in TIME said that 61% of churched teenagers leave church to never return [2]. Whatever one’s theological leanings, these statistics are sobering for any Christian to hear. They beg the question, “Why the mass exodus from the Church?” Books and speakers of decades past heralded entertainment-driven pragmatism as...
Consumerism and the Church Today
Over the last several decades a consensus has emerged among the market-driven and seeker sensitive, that the “traditional” church is like a product now rendered obsolete by the passage of time and the onrush of innovation [1]. Traditional churches are stuck with too few choices and products – and the products are those they have always offered. Indeed, liturgical traditions have their most public products and choices prescribed for...
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