Notebook archive, by theme

The notebook is where Vine & Lintel publishes essays that do not fit neatly under one of the five practices. This archive groups them by theme, so that readers looking for a particular question can find every piece that touches it. The newest essays always appear first on the notebook page.

The idea behind the framework

• Why "practices"? What the word adds to the way churches plan, compared with programs or goals.
• Lumpers and splitters: why five practices, and not three or twelve.
• The five practices and the four areas of focus, or how congregational habits relate to denominational priorities.

Measuring and researching congregations

• Fruitfulness is more than numbers: what attendance and giving figures can and cannot say.
• The Call to Action study of 2010 and its "drivers of vitality", read with its limits in mind.

Worship and prayer through the year

• Wesley's Covenant Prayer and the New Year covenant renewal service.
• A single line: Advent, Charles Wesley's Christmas poetry and the power of one verse.
• Remember the Future, a thirty-day pattern of prayer for a church facing change.

Leading through hard seasons

• Don't let worry win: fatigue, fear and decisions when budgets are tight.
• Fixing and healing: what the 2011 Joplin tornado suggests about helping after a disaster.

Planning and preaching

• Preaching on hospitality: texts, themes and pitfalls for a sermon series on welcome.
• Creative worship planning: a planning rhythm, a one-page form and short dramas used well.

For the practices themselves, start with the overview of the five practices; for the books behind the framework, see books and author.