Under the Wall Street Journal headline “Have You Checked Your Mailbox Today? Neither Has Anyone Else” comes more data on changing patterns of life that we have, for so long, taken for granted. Today, only three-quarters of Americans check their mail daily. Some go weeks—or months—without...
We offer two cultural data points today for consideration, alongside the congregational information your church board will be reviewing as it prepares for the new year. We don’t want to make too much of either data point, but together they seem to suggest something about...
The last two weeks we have posted about how to evaluate as a church board, and what to evaluate and why. But one question remains: what should you do with the information you collect? Now that your board has actually conducted a thoughtful, imaginative evaluation...
(Following last week’s post, this is the second of three pieces on church boards and evaluation.) Ask a church board how it knows whether its ministry is succeeding, and you will likely hear two or three of the following data points. Total pledges Number of pledges Total members Number...
In the history of church board work, two persistent obstacles to moving forward are (1) “I think” and (2) “what they are saying.” There is nothing wrong with an individual board member thinking (glad we could affirm that). However, no one person can see the whole...
It is easy. And understandable. And dangerous. It is easy, understandable, and dangerous for you as a church board to narrow the aperture of your vision, so that you only see: Budgets Buildings Complaints Staff problems Staff vacancies Of course, congregations consist of so much...
The answer to that may not necessarily be, “Faith formation begins with church boards!” Still, spiritually mature church boards understand that they need to think through how faith formation happens, as they do their work leading a congregation. Among the many definitions of faith formation, we will...
“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” – Mary Oliver, Evidence (2009) Published in 2022, Shawn Ginwright ‘s The Four Pivots describes four shifts toward “Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves.” From Lens to Mirror From Transactional to Transformative From Problem to Possibility From Hustle to Flow Each of these pivots deserves...
Periodically, we need a reminder of why we write this blog and what our hopes are for church boards. A recent report from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) serves as just such a reminder. The PRRI report announced its findings last week with the headline:...