We Go To Church To Be Changed May01

We Go To Church To Be Changed

The artist, the educator and the therapist walk different paths in different ways, but those paths meet at an intersection where the street sign says: You must change your life.For we do not go to the artist, the educator or the therapist to remain the same; we go to them to be given the vision and the tools to go on, and to go on is always to change. ~Michael Ventura, “Teacher as Healer” I think Michael Ventura’s words could be applied to preachers as well, but I wonder if preachers sometimes forget. Preachers may worry, that is, not simply about what expectations people bring to their sermons, but in this age of declining...

The Risk of Not Changing

You know the stats. The mainline church in North America has lost significant numbers of members over the last several decades. The ELCA alone suffered a 20% loss over the last fifteen years. This isn’t news. What is news – or what should be – is how little we’re doing about it. Oh, don’t get me wrong – we have all kinds of programs and meetings and studies and initiatives. Yet when it comes down to calling into question basic assumptions about worship and preaching and congregational life and leadership, we continue to do what we’ve been doing for much of the last century. Last night, after making a presentation on some of the...

Transformed or Tweaked?

Everyone wants transformational change. Congregations, the church at large, companies, public schools, the government, colleges and seminaries… The list could go on. Two reasons, I think, explain this desire. First, we know that a lot of the ways “we’ve always done it” aren’t working anymore. Whether it’s the way our congregations are run, our seminaries educate leaders, our companies make a profit in a way that serves customers and is environmentally sustainable, our government functions, etc. – we have this deep sense and suspicion that just enough has changed in our world that we also need to change – really change – to...

Change or Progress? May20

Change or Progress?

I found the following two-minute video simultaneously intriguing, stimulating, and just a little disturbing. First, a little context. The Glossary is a group that produces videos to promote books. They put together the video I highlighted a short time ago called “This is Water.” This one...

Luke 8:32-38

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds...