by social@thebtscenter.org | Mar 2, 2018 | 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Small Church Vitality
The articles in this month’s Bearings magazine, “Small Is the New Big,” illuminate questions raised by the realities of small church ministry. In them we read eyewitness accounts of the spiritual energy in churches described as “small”—small that is, when the metric...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Feb 23, 2018 | 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Small Church Vitality
With few exceptions, Christian churches in America are in trouble. Membership has been trending slowly downward for decades with the most pronounced declines occurring in churches in the mainline Protestant tradition. I am not writing, however, to sound the alarm...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Feb 16, 2018 | 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Small Church Vitality
A number of years ago I found myself sitting in an auditorium, surrounded by colleagues, listening to a speaker talk about church growth. It was not the first time I had found myself in this situation: A speaker from an urban center telling people in a judicatory that...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Feb 9, 2018 | 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, Small Church Vitality
We sit quietly in a 125-year-old, former Methodist church sanctuary (now a space used for art events). A cello, violin, and guitar lead us with instrument and voice. We sing one line of one psalm 108 times. We sing the line 108 times because the musician who leads us...
