About a month ago our Pastor announced the second annual Matter Conference (November 3rd, 2012) right here on his blog. (To see that post go here) I’ll admit the first time he mentioned to the staff that we were going to host a conference I had to do a double take. I thought, “Who are […]
Category: Making Church Matter
I have been reading Pastor Andy Stanley’s new book, out this week, “Deep & Wide.” He says it’s a book about “creating churches unchurched people love to attend.” My kind of book about my kind of church. The only time the word “church” is used in the four Gospels comes in the Gospel of Matthew. […]
In graduate school, my specialization was “ecclesiology” which is the study of the Church itself: what it is, how it is constituted and how it grows. Ever since, my abiding interest, as regular readers know, is growing healthy churches. The so-called “mega-church” movement therefore, and not surprisingly, holds special interest for me. “Mega-church” is a […]
This morning we had an all-call staff gathering to take a look at the new church year (2012-2013), which starts today. After Mass, we gathered for bagels and coffee and some great sharing all about the amazing time that is just ahead for us. Tom, my associate, gave an overview of what’s ahead for our […]
As many of you know, my associate Tom Corcoran and I have been working on a book for the past year, working especially hard these past weeks, with final edits. We have also been in discussion with our editor about a title. It was an interesting process and probably two-dozen titles were actively discussed and […]
This is the third and final segment in my a reflection this past week asking the question, “What is going on?” as in, “What is going on in churchworld?” Things no longer seem to be going well in many, many different slices of church life across the country, and why that is so, or how […]
Currently I am asking the question, “What is going on?” as in, what is going on in churchworld? A sampling of some of what prompts the question. In a certain region of one diocese four very different parishes have suddenly been merged into one. Aside from the grief and pain of losing their own parishes, […]
I was away for most of the weekend for my beautiful cousin Laura’s wedding. Beyond the joy of the event a wedding in my family will provide sermon illustrations for months to come, so it was a wise investment of my time. One of the many great things about this wedding (a truly great wedding […]
I am currently on vacation. Please enjoy the second half of this vintage post. Talk to you next week. 7 GREAT PRACTICES CONTINUED By nativitypastor : July 1, 2009 This past Sunday we published four of the seven “great practices” we had found in successful Churches. Below are the final three practices. Take a look. […]
I am currently on vacation, please enjoy this vintage post. 7 GREAT PRACTICES By nativitypastor : June 28, 2009 As we gathered together with Parish staff and leadership last week we spent some time looking at things we’ve learned from others, especially the very best practices of some of the most successful Churches in America. […]
