We have a saying here at Nativity: “You’re always in a season.” Just as in nature, we always find ourselves in corresponding seasons of growth and fertility, seasons of maturation and harvest, seasons of decline and death. Knowing what “season” you and your church are in can be a great help for reflecting on the […]
Category: Evangelization
Christmas and Easter. We all know those Catholics, right? They go by many (not so nice) names and acronyms that churchpeople like to throw around this time of year. But seeing as name-calling is a reliably ineffective strategy for increased attendance, it’s time for churches to re-evaluate our attitude towards Easter guests. Easter Starts on […]
Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Jesus said: “Roll away the stone.” John 11.40 As odd as it sounds, recent statistics consistently show that many people who don’t go to church or describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, nevertheless still profess a belief in God and […]
Churches that are focused on something other than growing disciples eventually stop growing. That’s where a lot of churches are today. But if a church is healthy, there’s no real reason why it should stop growing both wider and deeper. That’s the vision we believe God has for his Church. Here are 5 of the […]
This weekend we’re hosting our annual “Winter Small Group Launch.” We’ve found this event is a great point of entry for new members to join, new groups to form, and new leaders to step up. Making the most of a launch can go a long way towards building a culture of small groups. Here are […]
It’s the New Year, and most people make plans for a year more successful than the last. So lets resolve to put to rest some of the old and tired excuses, myths really, that tend to hang around unsuccessful churches and their leaders. Here are five of the most common. “We don’t need to grow.” […]
“He’s making a list and checking it twice…” Anyone who serves on a church staff or volunteers around a church office knows that along with the joy, preparing for Christmas can be a stressful and busy time of year. There’s a lot of work that goes into pulling off a successful and inspiring Christmas celebration. […]
As regular readers know, I do not comment on politics here in this blog, nor do I do so in church. I think I am entirely consistent in this policy, and quite genuine. You may guess my views, but it would only be a guess; no clues, no winks or nods going on here. That […]
Rebuilt tells the story of what happened to us, what we learned, and what we now know about growing a healthy parish. It is all about the twin exercises of discipleship and evangelization, or what we have come to call awakening the faithful, while also, and at the same time, reaching the lost- oh, and […]
This Sunday our parish celebrates our annual Kick-Off Weekend. While the Church’s liturgical year runs from Advent to Advent, most families plan their year, especially if kids are involved, from September to June. So we make this weekend- the weekend after Labor Day- a special celebration each year. Nothing is different liturgically, of course (it’s […]
