3+ hour, 16+ min ago   (210+ words) The Strategically Small Church: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective (Revised and Expanded Edition) By Brandon J. O'Brien Baker Publishing Group, 160 Pages Published July 22, 2025 The expectation that small churches must constantly increase Sunday attendance and involvement in ministry programs has led to…...

2+ day, 3+ hour ago   (987+ words) It was March 2020. The streets emptied; the restaurants closed. Musicians, cooks, servers, and dishwashers " most of whom lived paycheck to paycheck " were suddenly without work. Unemployment benefits were delayed or inaccessible. The town of Yachats, Oregon, like many others, was…...

6+ day, 2+ hour ago   (312+ words) Notes to John" By Joan Didion Knopf, 224 pages Published April 22, 2025 Notes to John is set in Times New Roman, a font most publishers would avoid. However, the editor notes that Joan Didion typed this manuscript in this font. Didion died…...

6+ day, 3+ hour ago   (916+ words) Some songs do more than accompany worship " they become a church's prayer. Few modern compositions have done this as powerfully as Richard Smallwood's "Total Praise," a song that has crossed denominational, cultural and national boundaries to give voice to trust,…...

1+ week, 3+ hour ago   (556+ words) I don't fully know what a vital congregation will look like in the future. Still, I suspect that vital congregations of tomorrow (and really, of today) will be measured much more by their impact and relationship with their neighbors, and…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (913+ words) The Presbyterian Center in Louisville. Some familiar Bible verses come to mind when considering the changes taking effect at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)s mission agency for the new year. Ecclesiastes 3:6b: "[A] time to keep and a time to throw away....

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (1067+ words) Members of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) committee that has spent nearly two years drafting a possible new confession say an in-person meeting last summer marked a turning point, even as the document remains unfinished and unapproved. When the Special Committee to…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (1455+ words) The words are as relevant for Presbyterians today as they were in the past. Although the Declaration was never added to the Book of Confessions of the pre-reunion PCUS (the old "Southern" church) or the post-reunion Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the general…...

2+ week, 3+ hour ago   (269+ words) Terrence Malick's 2011 film "The Tree of Life" begins with a quote from God talking to Job in a whirlwind: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? " When the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly…...

6+ mon, 4+ week ago   (338+ words) In the spring of 2021, I began having mystical, healing experiences that radically transformed how I understand myself, the world around me and God. These encounters with the Divine have influenced everything: how I get dressed in the morning, talk to…...