The Front Door Nobody Is Using
The mission infrastructure your congregation needs already exists. Most of it just isn’t pointed at anything yet.
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The Assumption That’s Killing Us
There’s an accusation quietly circulating in Lutheran circles right now, and it usually sounds something like this: “If your church is growing, you must be watering something down.” It gets dressed up in more refined language with concerns about “faithful catechesis,” questions about “theological integrity,” whispers about whether a congregation is “truly confessional.” But strip…
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Merge, Multiply, or Die: The Conversation Nobody Wants to Have and Everybody Needs
Faithfulness sometimes looks like letting go of what you’ve built so that something greater can be born. The case for merger, consolidation, and multisite as mission strategy — not institutional survival.
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The Chaplaincy Trap
The Outward Turn · Part One If your church ceased to exist tomorrow, would anyone outside your congregation know it was gone? Sit with that question for a moment before you answer it. Not the people on your roster. Not the families who would miss Sunday morning. Not the pastor whose livelihood depends on the…
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You Keep Going Back to the Wrong Well
Why the thing you’re drinking from isn’t satisfying the thirst you actually have We have a spring on the back of our property. It’s not dramatic. Just a wet spot on a hill that never dries out. Even in July when everything else is cracked and brown. Even in the winters when the temperature drops…
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The Institution Is Not the Church
A hard reckoning about numbers, urban deserts, and what it means when a denomination forgets the difference between preserving a structure and advancing a kingdom. Last week I wrote about the sale of Concordia Ann Arbor and I asked a hard question about what it reveals when a denomination puts a price tag on a…
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The Table That Was Closed Is Open
Why the hunger you can’t name might be the most important thing about you There is a hunger that doesn’t have a name. You know the one. It’s not the hunger you feel at noon when you skipped breakfast. It’s deeper than that. It’s that low-grade ache, that sense that something is missing. It’s the…
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You Were Never Meant to Carry It All
There’s a strange tension that nobody really prepares you for when the thing you’re leading grows past what you can personally hold. For a pastor, it’s the congregation. For a manager, it’s the team. For a parent, it might just be the family table getting louder and more complicated. But the tension is the same:…
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Stewardship Means Structure (Part 2): The Final 3 Moves We Can’t Ignore
If we’re going to stop managing decline and actually start stewarding the mission, then we have to finish what we started. The first three moves were about people, partnership, and process. These final three are about focus, funding, and fruit. And if we miss these, we’ll keep spinning our wheels no matter how many conversations we have….
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Stewardship Means Structure: 3 Moves We Can Make Right Now
Healthy churches don’t happen by accident. Discover 3 practical steps—teams, partnerships, and playbooks—to strengthen mission and discipleship.
