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Loose connections: What's happening to church membership?
Most churches still
approach membership the way they did in the 1960s. But if new modes of affiliation are
appearing, churches will need new ways of thinking about membership.
Dismembership plan
When House of Mercy began in 1996, most attendees weren’t interested in formal membership. In 2008, the church joined the ELCA—which requires congregations to keep a member roll.
The one true music collection
This week's texts make me think about interfaith dialogue,
and interfaith dialogue makes me think of a conversation with my friend Ali. We
were trying to reconcile the fact that each of our religions--or at least some
segments of each of our religions--claims that the other's religion is flat out
wrong.
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Uganda shelves kill the gays bill--for now.
Trouble in paradise
Fiji has long been known
to Westerners mainly as an exotic tourist destination. In recent years, though,
the country has acquired a troubling reputation for religious and
ethnic confrontations.
Grateful, not joyful
I confess that I'm not up to forgiving Osama bin Laden. But I'm not going to dance in the street over his death either.
Moving parts: Liturgical body language
Using my hands in worship—whether raising them high or making the sign of the cross—helps to blur the boundaries that slice across the body of Christ.