This is an excerpt from a post written by Erwin Raphael McManus at the Origins Project site: When researchers try to break down what is happening at Mosaic, far too often they see the skin and miss the heart. They see nine gatherings in seven locations, and so we are a multi-site congregation. Or they [...]

There are some sobering statistics about the on going flight from church reflected in a recent report released by the Presbyterian Church in the USA.  Here’s the money quote: LOUISVILLE — Membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) fell by 69,381 in 2008, the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) has announced in its annual statistical [...]

My article on authority in the Evangelical church, which is reposted here from its original post on patheos, a website for interfaith dialogue.  My article was a part of the Evangelical perspective answering the question “Who Speaks for Us?“ Early in my Christian experience I spent some time at a church that would have been [...]

In the book The Myth of a Christian Religion, Greg Boyd explores what he understands to be the true calling of the church and the ways religion often gets in the way.  He argues that the true calling of the church is to represent and proclaim the Kingdom of God, which he defines as: the Kingdom [...]

Soong-Chan Rah argues powerfully that the evangelical church in America is held captive to Western (he means white) culture.  He points to the models of ministry held up as ‘successful’ at conferences and in publishers’ catalogs as evidence that American evangelicalism glorifies the white suburban church as the epitome of what church should look like. Throughout [...]

This chart displays graphically the inflow and outflow of people in various religious groups in America.   This graph is taken from a post by internet monk.  It was compiled from two surveys recently released detailing the state of religion in America.  The most influential is the Pew Forum study Faith in Flux.  The upshot [...]

I’ve heard a friend say that defining the emerging church is like trying to nail Jell-o to the wall.  It doesn’t have any formal institution or maintain a set of doctrines or membership requirements.  It is, when defined by its adherents something of a conversation that is categorized more by ethos than doctrine.  The people who are a part [...]

A new survey is about religion in America is out and here’s the summary from a CNN article: America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found.  there has been [...]

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This is a book about becoming water.  It is a call for churches and ministries to become adaptable, flexible, and fluid with their cultural surroundings.  Gibbons points to the increasing globalization occurring as the primary reason driving the need for churches to become this way.  Neighborhoods are becoming more diverse, and the amount of cultural information [...]