Harry attended church for the last time on Sunday. A frail but independent 83 years, given to unexpected fainting and on heavy medication, the doctor decreed it was time to call it quits. No more would Harry leave his ill wife, board a tram and travel to church. It was the end of an era […]
Bob and Muriel are real people. They are in their early fifties, the parents of several adult children. There are a number of grandchildren one of whom died recently after alleged physical abuse by a de facto son-in-law. There is a daughter in her early twenties living at home. She is an unmarried mother with […]
Whichever way we look at it, all the talk about church growth is not being matched by actual on the ground growth in many places. It’s a paradox really. Never have there been so many on line resources, books, tapes, DVD’s and conferences all focussing energetically on the most effective ways to grow the church. […]
Oops, don’t look now but our slip is showing. Something is just slightly out of whack, out of shape. There’s just one small problem: we are not correcting the situation. Perhaps it is too hard! A quick snap shot across the broad canvas of churches shows that many are residing on a plateau – holding […]
Is the home visit by the pastor finished? Has this classic pastoral care strategy gone past its use by date? The doorbells are not being rung these days. The preacher cum house caller model of pastoral leadership, much loved and appreciated in its day, has almost disappeared. The old adage of the “home visiting pastor […]
Silly as it may seem, most people already have formed a few ideas about your church before they ever go on site. And they will form a few more should they manage a visit to a service. The body language of your building speaks with great clarity and the messages conveyed may not necessarily bring […]
No doubt about it, Paul set a great model with his enthusiastic investment in young Timothy. This was mentoring par excellence. But are we creating space for today’s young adults? Are today’s Timothys and Tinas being given a chance to learn the leadership ropes and participate meaningfully in congregational life as lay leaders? The “unemployed” […]
If you are looking for the flavour of the month around many churches, go no further than the dreaming up of vision statements, the setting of goals and the identifying of measurable objectives. If you are really taking the Gospel seriously, you will surely be drafting up a directions manual for the next five years […]
How many of your great ideas have crashed and burned lately? Have any ministry wheels fallen off at high speed? What do you do with the disappointment, or the frustration, or the anxiety which accrues at a marvellous rate of knots when things don’t quite work out as you planned? Mind you, any pastor who […]
When it came to recruiting prophets, the Almighty should have worked through a professional head-hunting agency. Instead, He constantly got stuck with the retiring, the reticent, the young, the inept and the battler. As for terms and conditions, He never got it right…. His prophets should have had WorkCare, plenty of long service leave and […]