For Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich each, the wall was a failed marriage that took them by surprise. Successful in everything else they had done, each had to process this new reality. Each came out of it a better believer, closer to God. They describe that process in their book The Critical Journey: Stages in […]
Read MoreThe Office of Research and Evaluation of a major mainline church denomination just released their projections of decline in membership and attendance. From 5 million in 1988, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America can expect fewer than 67,000 members thirty years from now. Average attendance will be less than 16,000 in about twenty years. This […]
Read MoreWhy Do People Go To Church? If you were asked that question, how would you answer and how long would you need to think about it? Read More Why So Many Young Adults Went Missing In the last several decades a critical balance shifted in the United States. While the majority of […]
Read MoreTelling about one’s spiritual journey is common in Evangelical communities. It’s an invitation to talk about your conversion. But there is no reason why mainline Christians can’t do that, too, even though we are usually baptized as infants. I advocate telling about your spiritual journey in terms of how close or far from God you […]
Read More“Spiritual Growth” is a long-used category in my Lutheran experience, at least in the Walther League of my youth. But “Growth in the Spirit” is a totally new category not yet on the radar of most pastors. At least that is my experience in trying to promote “Thriving” or “Growing” in the Spirit. “Closeness to […]
Read MoreOver my years of membership in the American Psychological Association, I watched my division of industrial and organizational psychology spin off a new specialty called sports psychology. Those psychologists focus on helping athletes to reach peak performance. They explore mental practices that allow an athlete to squeeze out a little more speed or increase endurance […]
Read MoreI recently talked with my neighbor about the frustrations he is experiencing at a prominent mainline church where he has been an active member and leader for many years. Many such once-famous and now-mostly-empty mainline churches are spread across the country. What I noticed is how frequently he recalled great preachers of the past and […]
Read MoreHow do we get more of the Holy Spirit’s influence in our inner being? The Spirit works at his own initiative. Yet there are certain activities we can undertake on our own to open ourselves more fully to his work. These historically are called spiritual disciplines. Forty years ago, Richard Foster recast disciplines for Protestants […]
Read MoreWhen you celebrated the Christ child and started the New Year, did you have any primary experiences of the Spirit at work in your life? Did you see the Spirit touching someone else’s life? The Holy Spirit is God at work touching hearts and then moving people into action. The Spirit’s hallmark is stirring up […]
Read MoreIn the GROWTH practices I have identified, O is the first stretch practice. The six practices are Go to God in worship and prayer, Receive God’s Word for you, Opt for self-denial, give Witness to your Spiritual experiences, Trust God in a new venture, Humble yourself before God. In my personal walk with the Lord, […]
Read MoreThe apostle Paul had a dramatic experience of God and also a slow, over-the-years formation by the Holy Spirit. The dramatic one is his well-known conversion on his journey to Damascus in Acts 9. The slower formation, we know little about. It started with the three years he spent in the desert after his conversion. […]
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