I just got back from another trip visiting our publisher, Ave Maria Press, at Notre Dame. I’m always inspired and grateful after spending time with them. (By the way, allow me to make a plug for their amazing parish resources, check them out @ avemariapress.com) There was a lot on our agenda. We started exploratory […]
If you’ve been keeping up with my Twitter, you might have noticed that our staff at Nativity are filming a TV show. We have partnered up with our amazing friends at CatholicTV to put together 13 episodes of what we are calling The Rebuilt Show. It will air in the Fall and Spring, and you […]
Many will hate to hear it, but one sign of a healthy church is growth in weekend attendance. If people are actively leaving, or not a single new family has joined your parish in some time, then chances are, there are things you could be doing to better attract and serve people through your Sunday […]
Anyone who works at a church knows the summer generally means less attendance, less offertory, and less “going on” in general. But that doesn’t mean the summer is time to check out until September rolls around. Beyond the obvious benefit of refreshment and renewal the summer vacation should provide (if you plan it properly), summertime is […]
This is the time of year for new leadership transitions. In the Catholic world, May to July is usually the season for ordinations and new church assignments. Some are becoming pastors for the first time- others are just moving on. You might be taking over the reins from a great leader, or someone who didn’t […]
I’m posting this week from California at Saddleback Church’s Global PEACE Conference. I’m here with Brian Crook, our Director of Missions at Nativity. It’s been an inspiring and thought-provoking experience. Pastor Rick Warren had the vision of bringing together pastors from countries around the world to share ideas and learn from one another how to […]
This past week, our “Message Team” met for an all day off-site to finalize our plans for our message series for the upcoming year. The message team consists of 7 people on staff who meet each week to help develop and evaluate my weekend messages. A few times a year we take extra time to […]
Over the years we have been able to predict with some accuracy who is likely to show up in our lobby on any given Sunday. We always talk about Timonium Tim, the name we’ve given to the quintessentially unchurched guy and his family in our community. We plan every aspect of our weekend experience around […]
This is the third and final installment of blogs dedicated to our groundbreaking events. Last week, I wrote about our formal dedication liturgy with the Most Rev. William Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore. It was a day of great rejoicing and perfect weather. We’re hoping for a repeat on weather. This weekend is our groundbreaking celebration. […]
One of the casualties of our new construction will be our old chapel. It sits on what will eventually be our new lobby. The chapel is in no way architecturally distinguished—its only artistic distinction being the stained glass windows—which will be preserved and reused elsewhere. Mostly the chapel was used for quiet prayer and daily […]
