A friend recently asked me: My congregation is once again sending out a search committee for a new pastor. In an all-member survey, several of us expressed grave concern about the lack of young families now—hundreds in the Sunday school classes when our kids were growing up, but just a few dozen now. In your…
This week’s post is written by Rev. Malcolm Himschoot, Minister for Ministerial Transitions in the Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization (MESA) Team within the UCC’s national setting. The vocabulary described below is the result of many months of Malcolm’s research on how local church pastoral leadership transitions have been described in conference and association settings.…
The Pew Research Center recently released a report on the future of world religion. Using population growth projections, researchers have predicted which traditions will increase in membership and which traditions will decline in the next 35 years. The report summarizes what global religion will look like by 2050: – The number of Muslims will nearly…
Versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), most recently passed in the states of Indiana and Arkansas, are being used by more conservative Christian groups as a platform for businesses to deny services to LGBT persons; and the nuances and unintended consequences of this legislation have been playing out in several states and in…
