Blogs & Podcasts

7 Key Questions to Focus Your Change Agenda

Successful change requires setting priorities. But how can a leader discern which goals are most important? Doug Powe and Lovett Weems suggest a series of questions that can help reveal which initiatives can make the most difference.

Churches To Follow

The Good Neighbor Movement isn’t your typical church community but they are joining God in their neighborhoods in some incredible ways! Here’s how they introduce themselves on their website: “Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, we are an alternative spiritual community. Inspired by the revolutionary teachings and activism of Jesus, and drawing from diverse religious and wisdom traditions, we seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in everyday life, with our contemplative activist groups, in homes, coffee shops, bars, the outdoors, the streets, online - in our neighborhoods.”

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Reimagining Church Buildings

By Dave Harder

How can your church building be an asset rather than a liability? Dave Harder says we must interrogate the dominant narrative that says church is what happens in the building for a few hours on a Sunday and let a new narrative emerge — one that focuses on God’s hopes and dreams for the neighborhood.

The Church and the Great Resignation

Rev. Natalia Terfa

Episode 86: “Daring to Think Forward in a Time of Accelerating Change” featuring Dwight Friesen

How can churches get ahead of the curve by learning to anticipate change rather than always responding to change after the fact? Dwight Friesen shares ways to cultivate the imagination and skill set needed to think forward.

Flipping the Script on Church Owned Property

How can local churches reimagine property stewardship so that a building can fund a church, rather than a church needing to fund a building? Tom Sine and Dwight Friesen offer examples of churches that have discovered innovative ways to leverage their property to fund their church and ministry.

Not Dead Yet

by Dorothy Butler Bass

[Read this one for a little hope and affirmation!]

Church Anew's Mark Elsdon is confident that We Aren't Broke.

The Kaleo Center offers this excellent resource on Sevenfold Social Transformation: excellent reading for vision, mission, and identity discernment; outreach and organizing discussions; and community engagement decisions.

3 Unique Gifts of the Rural Congregation

Do You View Your Church as an Organization or a Movement?

Joerg Rieger and Tripp Fuller, founder of the Home-brewed Christianity podcast, host an online course: Capital Change: The End of Religion and Business as Usual.

Episode 71: “Recalibrating the Church” featuring Scott Cormode

Why is change so difficult for churches? In this episode we speak with Scott Cormode about how church leaders can break free of common myths that cloud our thinking about change and how to embrace processes that sow the seeds of meaningful innovation.

Webinars & Training

From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion

Brian McLaren and Convergence provide an online, on-demand continuing education program for clergy and laity who want to strengthen their church while preparing for the cultural changes that impact ministry. Built to train lay and ordained leaders as spiritual activists in a growing, multi-denominational movement of just and generous Christianity, the courses include:

Clarifying Your Church's Identity
Your Message Matters
Curating Change
Worship Matters
Your Congregation As a School of Love
Church Impact

Courses can be purchased individually for $69. Small group and congregation pricing also available. Interested in purchasing all 6? Contact Convergence for pricing.

CONVERGENCE offers numerous training webinars and courses for emerging church leadership, for individuals and teams. Their, How to Use Your Church Campus As a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization or Online Small Group Curriculum for Your Church are options to invite your entire congregation to "imagine a new future for your church".