Challenges 
for Churches in 2024
 

Welcome to the new year! In this issue, our first of 2024, we highlight three superb articles that explore challenges that many local churches will face this year: our economic imagination, polarization, and our expectations for how we will work together in our congregations. And as a bonus, we include a list of some of the more important theology books of the past year.

Cultivating Communities works alongside cohorts of churches that are in close-proximity to each other, providing resources and helping them discern what it might look like for their congregations and their places to flourish. Our first three cohorts (one in the mountains of East Tennessee, one on the west side of Chicago, and one in Indianapolis) are now underway.

(Learn more about our cohorts and 
the Cultivating Communities Learning Journey)

Do This in Remembrance of Me: A How-To. Regular participation in the Eucharist should motivate, encourage, and empower us in the work of seeking the Kingdom here and now, through every available means. Inspired by a eucharistic vision of the world — a community of sharing, generosity, peace, love, joy, of koinonia in the deepest possible sense — we should leave worship on Sunday empowered to extend this koinonia into every corner of our lives, and of our world.  ( via Common Good Magazine )

The 80/20 rule is a problem for churches. Let’s stop being satisfied with the 80/20 rule. We should be thinking 100 percent—everybody in—and shaping our ministries to reflect that. (via The Christian Century)