PODCASTS

Tag: #congregations
Youth Ministry – Inspiration for Congregations – 9/30/24

Youth Ministry – Inspiration for Congregations – 9/30/24

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Youth Ministry -What is most effective in the 21st Century?

Inspiration for Congregations

Patterns of congregational youth ministry which were emphasized 20 and 30 years ago are not as effective these days to engage with teens, children and young adults now. Research has shown what church leaders and volunteers ought to emphasize now. The measurement they used:  what was distinctive in churches where students were still active in a congregation five to ten years later, long after they “graduated” from youth ministry.

The Rev. Mark Kiessling is director for the national Youth Ministry Office of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He tells Family Life News that ministry with young people which are geared mostly toward events and programs are not having the same impact with the current young generation. What is especially strong to influence

He says many smaller and midsized churches fret over not having much of a traditional “youth program”, if they even have one at all. However, smaller congregations actually have an advantage they can leverage: they are already good at relationships and personal connections.

Listen to this conversation from the podcast player here, and consider sharing it with decision-makers in your congregation or regional network.

–     –     –     –

Their research and recommendations are contained in “Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry” which includes these priorities:

+ Every congregation offers Warmth, Challenge, and Grace

overview & video:  youthesource.com/2019/07/healthy-congregations-have-warmth-challenge-grace/

+ Every young person should be intentionally connected with 5 Supportive Adults

overview & video:  youthesource.com/2019/07/healthy-congregations-have-supportive-adults/

+ Every parent is supported, so they can engage effectively with these daughters and sons

overview & video:  youthesource.com/2019/06/healthy-congregations-have-engaged-parents/

+ Every young person is helped to discover their identity in Jesus Christ, as well as their unique calling and vocation

overview & videos:  youthesource.com/seven-practices/

 

 

For further information:

* Website     * Handout     * Video     * Book

The LCMS is partnered with 194 congregations in New York, 81 in Pennsylvania, and about 6,000 across the nation.

This is a podcast in our new series “Inspiration for Congregations” with insights from local, regional and national experts, to provide information and motivations for leaders and members of local churches.  Today’s host is Family Life news producer Greg Gillispie.
Back to Church Weekend – Casey Jones – 9/12/24

Back to Church Weekend – Casey Jones – 9/12/24

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“Back to School” season is now followed by Back to Church Sunday.

 

Today’s podcast offers you a preview of what several congregations in our listening area are doing this weekend.

Casey Jones is the executive director of Allegany Hope, a Belmont-based network of Christian congregations in Allegany County. They are not only participating in localizing this weekend’s Back to Church Sunday annual emphasis; they also cooperate with a number of prayer, social and mission-oriented projects together.

One of those areas of emphasis is the community of Friendship, New York. Churches there have planned free community lunches there, both Saturday and Sunday. (Sept. 14-15, 2024)

 

Back to Church Sunday happens on the third Sunday of September, after people are back to school and back from Labor Day Weekend. This is the 15th year of the national emphasis. There are paid and free resources available to churches each year, to help with their efforts to re-motivate their members and to invite neighbors in. They also have options available to promote a Back to Church Weekend for congregation which offer worship and events on Saturdays.

 

 

 

 

 
Inside Out – Making Friends, Being a Friend, at Church – 9/11/24

Inside Out – Making Friends, Being a Friend, at Church – 9/11/24

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The “Inside Out” podcast, from Family Life

Making friends at church can be hard, but it’s both important and possible, and we can grow in the process.

 We want to find community at church, but it can be hard.

One of the challenges, according to writer and blogger Paige Pippin, is that many of us show up on Sundays already exhausted. “Getting to church can feel weirdly taxing at times,” she says. “And maybe it’s our personality–maybe we’re more introverted. Maybe we’re in a very hectic season. Maybe we’re getting our gaggle of young children to church. Or, maybe it’s genuinely heavy or life-altering circumstances, like a sickness or disability. So we show up to church and we already feel tired.”

Pippin’s the author of The Gospel Coalition article Help! I Want to Make Friends at Church. Pippin says that in addition to feeling spent when we arrive, we often feel uncertain.

“How do I engage?” Pippin asks. “This feels risky and out of control. Perhaps I’m believing others don’t want to be approached, or maybe it’s too much work, or maybe I believe the lie that it just doesn’t really matter.”

Our reasons for hesitating may be heart-felt, but the opportunity in front of us is a great one.

“We, as believers, are ambassadors of the Gospel, and we have this rich opportunity in front of us,” she says. “Accepting that means I have an opportunity to pray for my attitude–my openness–to others before I even enter the sanctuary. And maybe even to start leaving more margin in my coming and going on Sunday morning.”

Pippin encourages us not only to seek out friendships, but to seek them out with Christians who are different from us. We’ll likely grow deeper as disciples–and more amazed with God.  “Our awe for Him should be expanding as we see Him work in people who think differently than us, or who have walked different roads than us. God is that big, and He’s that able.”

None of this is easy. But God supplies everything we need for His Church to be unified.

“We, as Christians, have a leg up on friendship, because of the Spirit in us,” she says. “This should give us great confidence in pursuing other Christians. Because we know that this is what the Lord has and so we know that it’s not up to us to muster this strength, or to manufacture chemistry. The Lord wants it. He will show us how.”

 

Join us for our 14-minute conversation by listening to the podcast.

You can also read Paige Pippin’s article “Help! I Want to Make Friends at Church”.

Paige Pippin is a Christian author, blogger. and stay-at-home mom.

Inside Out with Martha Manikas-Foster is one of the Wednesday news features on the air and online. Hear it during our Noon Report, 5 O’Clock Report, and our “Family Life News” podcast feeds.

#InsideOut

 
Inside Out: Be Present and Active — We “worship”, we don’t “attend worship” — 5/22/24

Inside Out: Be Present and Active — We “worship”, we don’t “attend worship” — 5/22/24

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“Inside Out” : Come Ready to Worship

Ever find you’ve gotten to church, but your mind is someplace else?

“We want to urge people: get your heart and your mind ready before worship so that you can be spiritually engaged when you get there,” says the Rev. Alex Mark. He’s the senior pastor of First Scots Presbyterian Church of America in Beaufort, South Carolina.

He encourages us to focus on the privilege we have when we gather to worship God. “The most fundamental thing we need to realize is how important worship really is,” he says. “Our worship today is actually even more awesome than what they saw at Sinai. Because instead of having Moses as worship leader, we have Jesus. Instead of being kept at a distance, we are commanded to draw near.”

 

Mark is the author of The Gospel Coalition article “Ready for Church: 5 Ways to Be Present in Worship.” Family Life’s Martha Manikas-Foster talks with the pastor about actively engaging in worshiping God.

Foundational to our worship is remembering who deserves our focus.  “We are meeting with the living God. We are being led in worship by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is with us. And then I think the practical things flow from that. That’s one of the things sin does—it just distorts our whole worldview. We become more concerned with whether we’re satisfied than whether God is glorified,” he says.

 “The goal of worship isn’t to worship in a way that costs us nothing,” he adds. “Worship should cost us, because it’s a display from our hearts to the world of the incredible value and worth of God.

 He suggests several ways we can engage spiritually while at church. 

“We want to fight distraction,” he says. “My attention span has to be an offering to God. I want to give it to Him. Sing heartily in worship. I am tone deaf and musically illiterate. It is not a good combination. It’s not the quality of our voices that make our worship acceptable to God. It’s what Jesus has done for us.”

 He also points out that we can only apply the lessons of a sermon when we’ve listened to it.

 “Engage with the sermon. You know, Satan doesn’t mind us being under the Word, as long as we’re not paying attention to it. And so we’ve got the duty to really listen carefully to the ministry of the Word and then make it our goal for the week to put our preacher’s words into action.”

 The Rev. Alex Mark reminds us that worship isn’t always led from the front of the church. It includes supporting and cheering on others in the pews. 

 “One of the reasons we gather together is to encourage each other,” he reminds us. “Encouraging each other, I think, really means we’re intentional to care for one another’s souls, and to make it our purpose to help one another love and savor Jesus Christ more.”

 

Listen to our 17-minute conversation in this Family Life Inside Out podcast.

Read the article that inspired this conversation on the Gospel Coalition website
Real Answers – continuing our conversation about “Raising Sons” – 5/15/24

Real Answers – continuing our conversation about “Raising Sons” – 5/15/24

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Raising children is a delight and a challenge. Parenting is one of the most important tasks in all of life for those who are given this privilege.

Daughters also rely on uplifting upbringings, yet today we focus on boys.  What is unique about raising sons?

 

On this edition of Family Life’s “Real Answers“, therapeutic counselor Christopher Anderson offers Christian areas of emphasis for parents. These apply, whatever your son’s/sons’ age, whether you are married or a single parent, and whether you are a dad or a mom or a grandparent:

  •  The urgency of giving your children, especially sons, a deepening understanding of Jesus and of grace
  •  How vital it is for male and female parents to visibly live out your faith, and explain why the Lord improves your own life
  •  Connect your son with other men who are faithful adult role models
  •  The story of a valuable $50 bill

 

 

This podcast is the second of a two-part series on this important topic

Chris Anderson and Sarah Harnisch also talked about encouragement and advice for raising sons on our “Real Answers” feature earlier this month. Hear part one of that interview here.

 

 

“Real Answers” is one of our extended interviews on Wednesdays from Family Life News. Listen for it online, on our app and on the radio during the Family Life Noon Report

Podcast versions of all Family Life News Features are available for 24/7 listening, sharing, subscribing and downloading. You can find them on our website or search “Family Life News” on your favorite podcast app.
What churches get wrong, and how churches can help – 5/08/24

What churches get wrong, and how churches can help – 5/08/24

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Churches Can Help in the Pornography Crisis

Sam Black joins Martha Manikas-Foster for this “Inside Out” podcast on successful ways churches are helping those ensnared by pornography. Black is the author of The Healing Church: What Churches Get Wrong about Pornography and How to Fix It.

 A lot of Christians use pornography. 

 “Two-thirds of the men in the Church — and a third of women in the church — say they have an ongoing struggle with pornography,” reports Sam Black, who has walked his own journey to healing. He is the author of The Healing Church: What Churches Get Wrong about Pornography and How to Fix It.

 He says that churches that default to a purity talk to fight pornography need a better plan.

 “They already know they need to be pure,” he says. “They just can’t seem to get the gorilla off their back.”

 The way that people who struggle with pornography find hope is in community, Black says. They need brothers and sisters, in a safe environment within distinct parameters, to come alongside them on the walk to freedom. “What I want to encourage you with is, through a safe place and a safe process, living in freedom is absolutely possible,” he says. “You need to press into it to get it.”

 But because pornography is tenacious, you won’t solve it alone.

 “With this encouragement, I also have to offer some caution: you don’t find freedom on your own,” he says. “Trying harder and leaning on your willpower and your resolve never lasts. You must involve others. And that’s why we have the Body of Christ.”

 

 

 

A free chapter of Sam Black’s book is available for download.
Raising Boys – Family Life’s Real Answers – 05/01/24

Raising Boys – Family Life’s Real Answers – 05/01/24

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It’s “Real Answers” on Family Life

Raising boys affects sons, families and cultures.

Christian counselor Christopher Anderson offers tangible, specific areas of emphasis for parents — which also apply to other influential males in these families, churches and community groups:

  • Control the role of tech in the child’s or teen’s life
  • Connect with a congregation which sees ministry to growing boys and young men as a vibrant priority
  • Adult men lead as role models, so set a Godly example with your own life
  • “Nudge instead of judge”

 

First is the first of a two-part series on raising sons. Hear more about this important topic on Part Two, which aired May 15.  That is also available on our News Podcasts page.

 

 

“Real Answers” is a Wednesday news feature from Family Life News. In addition to airing during the Family Life Noon Report, a podcast version is available for 24/7 listening, sharing, subscribing and downloading.

 

 

 

Faith Under Fire – Long-term Lessons for Churches – 1/18/24

Faith Under Fire – Long-term Lessons for Churches – 1/18/24

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What lessons learned during the “Covid Era” will help congregations thrive into the new future?

We have a return visit from Allison Norton of the Covid Religion Research Project, which is in the third year of a five-year study of 15,000 American congregations. In this new conversation Norton addresses how congregations are poised to either return to pre-pandemic patterns or use their relatively recent discoveries as springboards into faithful ministries.

There are divergent contexts in particular congregations and faith communities. Some are finding exhaustion and frustration are nudging people back toward wanting former programs and patterns. Norton says, though, and churches’ challenges from pre-2020 continue to happen. Other churches are maintaining some of the innovation and experimentation which Covid lockdowns forced upon them. She gives an example of a congregation which has had success with the elimination of large weekly worship events.

The research has found one key factor which is determining congregational health and vitality for current times and moving forward from here: whether or not there is an attitude of optimism.

Allison Norton is a faculty research associate for Hartford International University, based in Connecticut. She also directs the Pastoral Innovation Network of New England (PINNE).

This Lilly-funded study continues through 2025, taking surveys across various denominational and non-denominational churches, and doing in-depth analysis of church change since 2020. Reports, research results and recommendations are on the project’s social media and website: CovidReligionResearch.org , Facebook , X/Twitter , Newsletter

Congregational leaders and denominational networks can use these resources to foster ongoing evaluation, discussion and planning.

 

In addition to this podcast, you also can listen to our first interview with Allison Norton. That topic centered on how churches have rebounded short-term after however many months or years of shutdown, change and trying new methods.

Faith Under Fire – Post-Covid Rebounds – 01/04/24

Faith Under Fire – Post-Covid Rebounds – 01/04/24

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A five-year research project on congregational vitality began just before the Covid shutdowns began in 2020. (The timing gives informative snapshots of the effect of the closing of church buildings, and the move of church life to electronic connections. It also gives us a long-view of how congregations have rebounded, and why some churches are seeing grow in the new era.)

That research has data from across the U.S. on how local churches fared during the pandemic, and analysis on how congregations have bounced back. Although local situations obviously vary, the national average is that overall worship attendance has nearly recovered to pre-pandemic levels. When those who worship online or through social media are included, the average church which offers at least one virtual option is seeing increased participation.

Allison Norton of Hartford International University joins Family Life to talk about the Religion Research Project, how various kinds of congregations are faring now, and what lessons church leaders can take from the Covid era, and what “next steps” seem to be most effective for churches and church networks.

Allison Norton is a faculty associate at Hartford International, and oversees its Covid Religion Research project.

She also directs the Pastoral Innovation Network of New England.

The Covid Religion Research website offers insights from this survey of 15,000 congregations, a research library, and information guides for congregational and denominational leaders. You will find those resources here. The Lilly-funded project also offers a newsletter for past results and future updates.

 

Inside Out – Glenn Daman – Encouragement for Rural Churches – 06/14/23

Inside Out – Glenn Daman – Encouragement for Rural Churches – 06/14/23

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Rural Churches Face Post-Pandemic Challenges … with Resilience and an Encouraged Theology

Although resilient, small rural churches are contending with fallout from the pandemic.  “There were some differing opinions and strongly held, so I think that we need to reconnect and move beyond that,” says author, pastor, and professor Glenn Daman. His 2018 book focusing on rural churches, The Forgotten Church, received Christianity Today‘s Award of Merit for The Church/Pastoral Leadership.

Daman points out that the pandemic also revealed the impact of media content and the internet on how people think–even within rural churches. The internet guides users to perspectives similar to what they’ve already sought out, so people often are not hearing opinions that challenge what they’ve been exposed to. “So, in some ways, the greatest threat to the distorting of truth is ourselves,” he says.

How can church leaders respond to the changed cultural landscape after COVID? “I think we continually have to challenge people to think biblically,” he says. “The politician is not the person we’re to turn to for truth. We need to be turning to Scripture and to the foundation of what the Scripture teaches as we form our perspective on our world and on our culture.”

Daman assures us that there’s reason for pastors and leaders to feel encouraged. “The biggest thing we need to remember in all this is God’s the one who builds the church. He didn’t say, ‘You go out and build the Church.’ He says, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church.’ ‘Some plant, some water, but I will build the Church.’ God is still building His Church. And nothing can stop that,” Daman says. “Our job is to be faithful. Preach His Word. Love the people. And if we do that, we’re being effective regardless of what the outward results are. Because God is at work.”

 Listen to our 18-minute conversation to hear about Glenn Daman’s newest book, The Lighthouse.

For further insights and inspiration on these matters:

  • Learn more about Glenn Daman here. 
  • RuralMinistry.net has reflections on congregational vitality, resources for training and equipping leadership from the membership, and practical encouragement from Glenn Daman and others on how to sustain faithful ministry in rural churches (and small churches in other locations too).

 

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