What Happened To Our Churches

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Turning Insights into Actions

The very best research on congregational life reaches this simple conclusion: Highly effective congregations have leaders with the key attribute of an unrelenting, uncompromising focus and drive to help grow people into disciples of Christ.

My conclusion is that the old traditional churches have a Spiritual problem, spelled with a capital S for Spirit. We have not paid enough attention to the Holy Spirit, who is Christ’s Spirit with us now. I propose 8 recommendations for what pastors and church leaders can do to regain vitality in their congregations.

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Our Part in the Big Picture of God’s Sacred Romance

As we draw closer to God’s heart, the journey of sanctification is more likely to engage our hearts when we realize the much bigger love story of what God wants in our relationship with Him — a sacred romance with us. Appreciating his unending love can arouse our hearts to participate more in the joy of sharing his love with others. We are part of something much bigger — the greatest love story ever told.

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Inviting the Spirit to Let Christ Become More at Home in My Heart

Sanctification is the journey of being drawn closer to God.  It is not an accomplishment we achieve on our own.  The Holy Spirit is the key actor. So what is our part in the process of sanctification?

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Spiritual Journeys of Growing Closer To God

Think of your life with God as a journey. Your ultimate destination is the Celestial City in eternity. In this life, what’s the next step you aspire to in being drawn closer to God? In Paul’s terms, what more of Christ’s full stature will you reach for? In Luther’s terms, where would you like to see your new nature in Christ become stronger and what of your old sinful nature would you like drowned out?

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Share Episodes of Your Personal Spiritual Journey

“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 […]

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Growing Closer to God is Similar to Peak Performance by Athletes

Over 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 […]

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The Spirit’s Work has to Stay Fresh for a Church to be Healthy

I 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 […]

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Six Practices That Will Help You Grow in the Spirit

How 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 […]

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Did You Have Any Primary Experiences of the Spirit Over the Holidays?

When 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 […]

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Practice Self-Denial

In 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, […]

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Recognizing the Spirit’s Work in Your Life

The 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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