Notebook
Essays on congregational life: fruitfulness and measurement, why practices matter, Wesley's covenant, church research and preparing for change.
- A single line: Advent, Christmas poetry and "the Word became flesh"
Countless sermons, carols and paintings try to describe the incarnation. Sometimes a single line of Scripture or hymnody says more than all of them. Notes on Advent, Charles Wesley's Christmas hymns and letting one line shape worship.
- Creative worship planning: short dramas, children's classes and simple planning forms
How small and mid-sized congregations can plan worship and Sunday school creatively: a planning rhythm, what a simple planning form should contain, using short dramas well, permissions to check and keeping children safe.
- Don't let worry win: fear, fatigue and decisions in anxious seasons
Tired leaders make poorer decisions, and frightened organizations do too. What the biblical refrain "do not be afraid" means for church councils facing financial strain, and practical ways to decide well when anxiety runs high.
- Fixing and healing: what the Joplin tornado suggests about how churches help after a disaster
After the 2011 Joplin tornado, thousands of volunteers came to repair and rebuild. The difference between fixing things and helping people heal is a useful lens for congregations that want to respond to disaster well, near or far.
- Fruitfulness is more than numbers: measuring what matters in a congregation
Churches count attendance, members and money, and are tempted to treat the counts as the goal. An essay on the biblical image of fruit, Goodhart's law, the strengths and limits of congregational metrics, and better questions for church councils.
- Lumpers and splitters: why five practices, and not three or twelve?
Church life is complex, yet the frameworks congregations use come in neat numbers. An essay on lumping and splitting, from Darwin to Wesley's three General Rules, and on what any list of practices can and cannot do for a congregation.
- Preaching on hospitality: biblical texts, sermon themes and pitfalls
A guide for preachers planning sermons or a series on Christian hospitality: the key biblical passages, themes that connect them, traps to avoid and ways to link preaching to what a congregation actually does.
- Remember the Future: a thirty-day series on praying for a church facing change
Before the 2012 United Methodist General Conference, Robert Schnase wrote a thirty-day series of reflections for church leaders, later published as Remember the Future. What the series addressed, its context, and how congregations can use a season of preparation before major decisions.
- The Call to Action and the "drivers of vitality": what a 2010 church study found, and its limits
In 2010 The United Methodist Church's Call to Action process commissioned a study of more than 32,000 congregations that identified 'drivers of vitality' in small groups, lay leadership, pastoral leadership and worship. What it found, how it was used and what it could not tell congregations.
- The five practices and the four areas of focus: congregational habits and denominational priorities
In 2008 United Methodist leaders adopted four areas of focus for the whole denomination, a year after the five practices became popular in congregations. What each framework is, how they differ in purpose and scale, and how a congregation can use both without confusion.
- Wesley's Covenant Prayer and the covenant renewal service: history and practice
The Methodist covenant renewal service goes back to John Wesley's first covenant service in London in 1755 and his 1780 pamphlet. Its history, the shape of the service, the Covenant Prayer line by line in brief, and practical notes for congregations holding one in January.
- Why "practices"? What the word adds to how churches plan
Why speak of congregational 'practices' rather than programs, goals or values? An essay on the idea of practice in philosophy and theology, from Alasdair MacIntyre to Dorothy Bass, and what it changes for church councils.
