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Author Archives: Mark Love
More metrics for a post-Christendom age: simplicity
4. Is your congregation–and its members–intentionally pursuing simplicity? My hunch is you’re not. My hunch is that church, for a lot of your members, is just another place in our cultural landscape where people are being asked to do more. … Continue reading
When did we see you Lord: a prayer of confession
When did we see you Lord? We thought we saw you on Sunday mornings, exalted in our praises. We though we saw you in the underlined sections of our Bibles. We thought we saw you when our cause succeeded. We … Continue reading
Posted in Christian practice
Tagged confession, Isaiah 53, Matthew 25, prayer, salvation, sin
7 Comments
More Metrics for a post-Christendom Age
3. Can your congregation talk about difficult issues without it becoming contentious or divisive? Again, let me unpack the question. The question might also have been asked, can your congregation have a discussion at all? This question has two aspects: … Continue reading
Metrics Beyond Numbers: Deux (because that’s how I roll)
A continuation from my previous post. 2. Is your congregation adept at finding new partners in the mission of God? A few important words here. First of all, notice that we’re defining what we’re up to as God’s mission, not … Continue reading
Beyond Numbers and Dollars: new metrics for a post-Christendom church
It’s tougher to know these days if your church is doing well. It used to be easier to evaluate. Numbers were the key: members and dollars. And in a setting where going or belonging to a church was a cultural … Continue reading
Posted in Christian practice, culture, missional leadership, missional theology, theology
Tagged growth, metrics, missio dei, missional church
11 Comments
Dear freshman, a little good news
I realized when making out my final for my freshman Bible class that I hadn’t adequately prepared them to write an essay on Paul for the final exam. So, I wrote one for them and asked for their reaction (haven’t … Continue reading
Repent and Believe the Good News: A Meditation on News of Decline
I wrote this piece at the request of Jason Locke, who has been hosting a series of posts on the problems/hopes related to decline among Churches of Christ on the west coast. A lot of thoughtful stuff there that you … Continue reading
Your Congregation Stinks at Communicating: Why I’m right about this
Congregations stink at communicating. Leaders often think that communicating means putting something in the bulletin or email newsy thing or announcing it from the front on Sundays. Not only do people not pay the kind of attention for which we … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
Why “Bless Your Little Heart” is a Work of the Flesh and other Observations on an Ecology of the Word
In the last post, I suggested that congregational leadership could be thought of around two movements: discerning and joining. Specifically, leadership is responsible for maintaining the conditions whereby the congregation can discern the mission of God and join it. Leadership … Continue reading
Discerning and Joining: Movements in Leading God’s People in Power
I’ve been thinking a lot about the tasks related to leading in congregations lately. More to the point, I’ve been thinking about how to create a culture within congregations in which they can act, or express their life powerfully (I … Continue reading
