First, a confession. I consider myself a teacher. I’ve taught a lot of stuff. I’ve spent the better part of my career devising, developing and publishing Christian education materials—teaching stuff. I appreciate the value of biblical literacy. The more people know about God the better. But, I’ve come to accept that teaching, after all, is [...]

People describe the Christian faith as a “personal relationship with Jesus.” But in the church, how have we gone about encouraging and developing that relationship with Christ? Sadly, our church services, classes and programs rarely pursue that relationship like, well, like a real relationship. It’s not for lack of good intentions. At some point, years [...]

They quietly walk into church, say little, look a bit detached, and leave quickly when the service concludes. These church attendees are Present In Body Only. They may be counted as members of a church’s flock, but their hearts, minds and souls are not engaged by what’s happening at church. They are among the legion [...]

Nationally, about 17% of the American population attends church services weekly, according to the American Church Research Project. In this blog I’ve been spotlighting some characteristics of this shrinking audience. Today we look at the 5th characteristic–today’s loyal church goers tend to be Auditory learners. They take in and remember primarily through their ears. The [...]

Some people are wired to attend church as we know it. Others (most people) are not. I’ve been describing characteristics that are found in those who attend weekly worship services. These descriptors all begin with the letter A. Today we look at the next one–Academic. Those in the pews today see the church’s role as [...]

The Sunday morning church experience was designed for a certain strata of society. And, for the most part, it works for that slice of the population. That shrinking minority that regularly attends church bears a number of characteristics. In my last post I mentioned a set of descriptors that all begin with the letter A. [...]

It seems everyone has an opinion on the state of the American church. Writing books on what’s wrong with the church has become somewhat of a fad. Many writers tell personal and painful stories of wounding at the hands of the church.             I don’t doubt their sincerity. But the church has always been populated [...]