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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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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$60 Million and a Gutted Beacon: What the Sale of Concordia Ann Arbor Really Tells Us
The grief is real. But the question underneath the grief is more important. I’ve been watching the reaction to the sale of Concordia University Ann Arbor this week. The alumni posts, the lament threads, the old yearbook photos dusted off and shared one more time. For some the grief is real. Alma maters matter. The…
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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.
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Changing Times
The times we’re living right now are times many of us never thought we’d see. The speed of cultural shift is so drastic it’s almost dizzying! Look at how fast things have morphed in the past 3-5 years. Some blame the pandemic others blow the thing off like it never happened. I think a better…
