The Culture of Our Churches and Their Places - A Deeper Life Together

The Culture of Our Churches and Their Places - A Deeper Life Together - 13 Sept 2024

Published: Fri, 09/13/24

Updated: Fri, 09/13/24

Resources for A Deeper Life Together
in our Churches and Neighborhoods

Curated by The Englewood Review of Books

13 September 2024

The Culture of Our Churches
and Their Places

In this latest issue of our newsletter for church leaders, we offer several recent articles that explore the culture of our churches and the places in which they are situated. We hope you find these articles thought-provoking and helpful.

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)

If you are a clergyperson, The Englewood Review of Books would like to know about your reading habits and those of your congregation. Can you take 5-10 minutes to complete this survey? Three names will be drawn from those who complete the survey as winners of a $50 bookstore gift card.

How can a congregation change its culture? Richard Kauffman makes the case that cultural change in a congregation demands wise, spiritual, and skillful leadership—along with good structure. It also needs congregants who ask themselves, How is my participation in this church caring for it as a living organism? (via The Christian Century )

Faced with declining membership, aging buildings and large, underutilized properties, many U.S. houses of worship have closed their doors in recent years. Presbyterian minister Eileen Linder has argued that 100,000 churches may close in the next few decades. But some congregations are using their land in new ways that reflect their faith – a focus of my urban planning research. Some are repurposing their property to provide affordable housing, as the housing crisis intensifies across the country. (via The Conversation)

Map Your Community Data. This tool from Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) will generate a custom report of housing, family structure, population changes, and other economic indicators and then summarize how to interpret the data for outreach efforts. (via Faith & Leadership)

- Lectionary Poetry -

In Quest
(Excerpt)
John Greenleaf Whittier

‘The riddle of the world is understood
Only by him who feels that God is good,
As only he can feel who makes his love
The ladder of his faith, and climbs above
On th’ rounds of his best instincts; draws no line
Between mere human goodness and divine,
But, judging God by what in him is best,
With a child’s trust leans on a Father’s breast,
And hears unmoved the old creeds babble still
Of kingly power and dread caprice of will,
Chary of blessing, prodigal of curse,
The pitiless doomsman of the universe.
Can Hatred ask for love? Can Selfishness
Invite to self-denial? Is He less
Than man in kindly dealing? Can He break
His own great law of fatherhood, forsake
And curse His children? Not for earth and heaven
Can separate tables of the law be given.
No rule can bind which He himself denies;
The truths of time are not eternal lies.’

(Selected to accompany Isaiah 50:4-9a and Psalm 116:1-9,
one of this week's Lectionary Readings)

Read all the Lectionary Poetry
selections for this week...
from The Englewood Review of Books

c/o Englewood Christian Church
57 N RURAL ST
INDIANAPOLIS IN 46201
USA

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The Culture of Our Churches and Their Places - A Deeper Life Together - 13 Sept 2024

In Quest(Excerpt)John Greenleaf Whittier

In Quest
(Excerpt)
John Greenleaf Whittier