Is Once-a-Week Church Too Much?

The habit of weekly worship attendance has already taken a hit among American churchgoers. Now a move is afoot to offer the Sunday morning routine just once per month. Even people who describe themselves as regular churchgoers are attending less frequently these days. That’s one of the factors that is contributing to shrinking church attendance on […]

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Future Church: Tastes in Worship

The faithful gathered around candle-lit tables in the darkened room. They heard a reading of Psalm 34:8. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” They then tasted–literally. They selected small cups of various flavors and condiments. Some people discovered a familiar taste and reached for a second helping. Others gasped and chuckled as they felt […]

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Shaming Them into Church

“You should go to church–and like it, whether you like it or not.” Some responders to my articles on the Dones (people who’ve left the organized church) have assigned total blame to the Dones themselves. “They’re backsliders,” they say. “It’s their duty to obey God and get their backsides back to church.” I’ve seen a […]

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The Thing That’s Draining the Church

What’s the thing that’s draining the life out of the American church? Is it a recent thing–or has it been around a while? People often ask these questions after seeing our film When God Left the Building, which depicts churches, small and large, famous and not, that are struggling to find their way. Is there a […]

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When Jesus Becomes a Fill-in-the-Blank

People describe the Christian faith as a “personal relationship with Jesus.” But in the church, how have we gone about encouraging and developing that relationship with Christ? Curiously, church services, classes and programs rarely pursue that relationship like, well, like a real relationship. It’s not for lack of good intentions. At some point, years ago, […]

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Riding Out 3 Big Ministry Storms

These are turbulent times. And the church is swirling in the maelstrom. I was reminded of this turbulence as I reviewed Holy Soup’s top blog posts over the past year. Three topics catapulted to the top, fueled by viral sharing across the country and around the world. Here they are, with a few thoughts about what […]

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Confessions of a Worship Wars Mercenary

It’s been brutal on the blog-o-battlefield. Since last week’s Holy Soup article “Why They Don’t Sing on Sunday Anymore,” I’ve been dodging incoming fire from hundreds of commenters and hundreds of thousands of site visitors and social media shares. I’ve seen that people have very strong feelings about this subject. Music is a highly subjective thing. Everybody […]

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Why They Don’t Sing on Sunday Anymore

Looking around the church last Sunday I noticed that the majority weren’t singing. And most of those who were singing barely moved their lips. The only voices I actually heard were those on stage with microphones. That’s been the case for years now–in churches large and small. What used to be congregational singing has become […]

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Breaking the Moldy Sunday Mold

This city has one of the highest unchurched populations in the country. It may just foretell the future. And that may be a good thing. There’s an innovative church here that’s bucking the odds. It’s growing. And not just in numbers, but in life change and commitment to Christ. Union Church, in the middle of […]

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What Children’s Ministry Can Teach Grown-up Church

As they filed out of church, several adults slapped the children’s minister on the back and said the same thing: “I got more out of that children’s message than I did out of the rest of the service.” Note to staff: They meant it. The more I’m around children at church the more I believe […]

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