This week some of our staff got together to begin planning for a conference, which we will be hosting this fall. A “church” conference. Why a church conference? What is a church conference? Here’s the background. For a number of years we set aside a Saturday each fall for a retreat for our parish staff. […]
I had an interesting experience this week with my associate Tom. We went “church shopping.” Now, when people use that expression, they are usually referring to the exercise of trying one church after another looking for a good fit. It really doesn’t bother me that people do that, in fact I think people should probably […]
Yesterday was the first day of Vacation Bible School. It was also the funeral of Tim Muth. Tim was a generous and beautiful man who served as a youth minister and a children’s minister here at Nativity. He died suddenly last week at the age of 50. The juxtaposition of raw grief at the death […]
On June 1st we posted a blog that generated more comments and questions than most. So much so, that I decided to return to the topic. The post looked at reasons churches don’t grow. There are reasons that churches don’t grow and it’s not just bad luck or bad karma or because of circumstances beyond […]
A parishioner was telling me a story about her son. It goes like this: he moves to a different part of the country for college and stays there to take a job there after graduation. Shortly after moving there he begins looking for a parish to attend Mass and get involved. That in itself could […]
This is the final week before we deliver the book to the publisher on Friday. And I thought it would be fun to give you, my loyal blog readers out there, a chance to help us out. The working title of the book is “Make church Matter.” The lower case “c” is intentional as a […]
God brings life and growth to everything, including churches. But there is plenty we can do to encourage growth, or inhibit it. Perry Noble, pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in the country, currently has an excellent blog post on church growth. I thought I would take a stab at the topic myself. […]
We had an interesting week traveling to South Bend, Indiana, to meet our publisher and his team at Ave Maria Press. The campus of Notre Dame is a remarkably beautiful place, and late spring is a perfect time to see it. Our meetings were quite exciting as we began to see our book project take […]
I will stand my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give. Then the Lord replied: Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits […]
It was fun and exciting to be able to share with everyone last weekend our big news about the book. If you missed it, see my last post, or catch the message on-line (just go to our web site, hit “messages” then “watch a message” and then watch the most recent message). Anyway, here’s some […]
