Newsweek’s Jon Mecham writes about The End of Christian America.

More than a 10% drop was recently reported in a poll for people that self-identify themselves as religious. The Northeast, the traditional basecamp for religion’s start in this country is no longer a reliable place to go to seek comfort for the religious. It is now home for the religiously unidentified, a title once reserved for the Pacific Northwest. And this is not just a case of overachieving Northeasterners doing their thing. It is something that is being experienced coast to coast.

The assumptions for how our American society, politics and people deal with Judeo-Christian values that started this country is changing. In this MSNBC TV interview with Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and Jon Mecham of Newsweek Magazine, you’ll first see how the President of our country now represents America’s religious identity in these post-Christian times. You almost expect a reporter to follow-up with questions about timetables for removing “In God We Trust” and the like from our currency, government buildings, etc.

But take notice from all this ballyhoo about the Christian religion’s exit from center stage:  God is NOT dead. 

What’s actually happening is that spirituality, faith and religion are taking on new faces and modus operandi in this country. Do you see the New Christian American?

(more…)

We find a lot of metaphors in secular business to learn from regarding how we can reinvent the churc.

There are so many things that great companies are doing in terms of marketing and attracting visitors that we can apply to our worship community.

BUT…what if we turned that around?

How would Starbucks operate if it acted like the local church today?  This is an eye-opening video to watch. . .

What parts of this parable stood out for you?

What parts of our church experience needs to be re-thought?

In ministry, I am always on guard to present myself (hopefully) in a manner that draws respect while honoring to the God that I am working for.

Today, an interesting question came up amongst some of the staff at Liquid Church - what do you do when porn stars follow you?

It is no surprise that the adult entertainment industry is up on Twitter since the industry has long been an early adopter and driver of new technology.

Both on the church’s public Twitter account, as well with some of the church staff’s individual accounts, it has recently been noted that porn stars have been popping up as followers.

And today, the question that arises more specifically is: What do you do with porn stars that are following your twitter account?

Although most probably, the specific daily twitter interaction would be non-explicit, it does present some issues that can’t be ignored.

This brings up some immediate questions: (more…)

What’s in your church bulletin?

Is the church program chock-filled with announcements, calendars and messages that are specific to that week?

If you are in a corporate sized church with 1,000+ attendees every week, are you still printing customized bulletins just like in the “old days” when you had just a few dozen or few hundred people coming to your worship services?

Or have you realized that producing and collating/assembling thousands of bulletins each week is a chore? (more…)

Speaking of faith-related mashups, Sim Young reminded me today that there are already many voices in the church + tech + web conversation today.

It’s evolving so fast, it feels like dog years!  The Church is achangin’ . . . Take notice!

Here’s 7 church tech blogs you should check out (via digital.leadnet.org)

• ChurchCrunch - exploring the intersection of technology and the church
• Church Tech Matters - a site for tech volunteers
• BetaChurch -design and technology for the church’s mission
• Church Technology Review -church meets Internet, websites, technology and web 2.0
• Church Tech Today - technology for today’s church
• Geeks & God podcast - encouraging ministries to use technology more effectively
• Mobile Ministry Magazine -the intersection of faith and mobile technology

Any that should be voted off the island?

Turning off your cellphones during a sermon in church is so 90’s.

Nowadays, you still don’t want to take a call from the pews, but pulling out the iPhone is becoming ok with the pastor in the pupit.

In fact, he is doing the same thing!

Time Magazine covered two churches that recently broke out of the pack of forefront churches to embrace Twitter in the pews. Similar to Trinity Church’s recent Twitter Passion Play during Easter worship, these churches explicitly incorporated twittering as accepted and part of worship by the congregants.

I sense this is the overlap of three complementary desires:

• People are tired of the sit and soak model of taking in sermons.  The messages don’t sink in.
• People want to be actively involved in worship in some way.
• Similar to one of the core strengths I have found in online Church worship experiences, people continuously have questions while they take in a sermon and seek clarification of what they just heard.  If they wait till after Church is over, it is usually too late.

Are you ready to text about the text on Sundays?

According to a 2004 Gallup Poll, of those surveyed in the U.S. 78% believe in angels.

But the devil has been more successful recently: belief in the devil and demons jumped from 55% in 1990 to 70% of the people believing in the devil and demons as of 2004.

But in the coming months, the real question is if the reality of Angels and Demons will make any difference.

The follow-up movie to The DaVinci code, Angels and Demons, debuted in Rome this month.

The Indian Catholic Church is already up in arms trying to ban the movie.

But the Vatican learned its lesson from the first go-round with The DaVinci Code and (more…)

These days, we now know that the front door to any church isn’t located at the front of the building.

Another door to the church is located on the world wide web.

When people are first considering to visit a church, they’ll google the church name or generic searches for churches with town names, denominations, or other features they desire in a church.

Then there’s another entire group of web surfers that are not local to your church building and they might be looking for more information to help them on their own faith journey - weather they are seekers or already committed disciples of Christ. It is just as important for your site to be accessible and offer content which will encourage and move them further along on their own spiritual walk.

If your church website isn’t doing it’s best to be outward facing, it’s time to wake up and start paying attention.

Here are 55+ tips every church website should consider in being evangelistic on the web: (more…)

66 percent of young adults are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives.

And 62 percent considered themselves “spiritual” although almost  80 percent said they never attend church, or only attend once in a while.

The normal reaction would be to try and usher these young adults looking for meaning to the front door of their local church.

But United Methodist Church is doing the opposite.  They are promoting the back door into the church.

The UMC is launching a $20 million campaign this month to try and connect that desire for purpose and actual outlets to make a difference in a person’s circle of influence.

Through their PR, events and a television ad campaign, they are pushing the 18-34 year olds to the 10,000 doors website which is a portal for social gospel and other volunteer oppportunities worldwide (complete with a Google Maps mashup to visually find projects in your neighborhood). (more…)

The constantly nagging question for the Church is where should it focus and what are the measures for success?

The old model has clearly been the ABC model for doing Church: How large is your attendance?  Are you building out the physical plant of your church? Are you drawing people into your buildings?  Are you creating ministries and programs that reinforce your church as the fundamental epicenter?  How are you attracting people to your church? And are people giving out of their wallets? Tithing? Sacrificing for the offering plates?

The big trap is when the Church- literally - is the focus, purpose and intention of the ministry.

Let’s make sure we’re packing the pews the more people!  Is this program or that program supporting our objective to position the church (its vibrant programs and ministries!) as the center of attention and focal point of the community?  Are we successfully teaching people to empty their wallets into the offering plate so that we can plan more programs?

But some are arguing for a new old model.  Leonard Sweet’s latest text, frames what the body of Christ was called to do within a simple, yet beautiful M-R-I model.

The intro chapter of So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church gives a taste of Sweet’s message. . .

(more…)