Love Loud: The Southern Baptist Convention 2009

Tomorrow I will fly to Louisville to attend the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s the annual meeting of the denomination to which I belong. This year’s theme is “love loud: actions speak louder than words.” I’ve been a Southern Baptist my entire life. Growing up a PK,...

Generation F and the Mega Church

Warren Bird and Scott Thumma have released new research on the mega church. The report comes out of the Hartford Institute of Religious Research and involved 25,000 people from 12 U.S. congregations. USA Today also reported on the research and noted a few key...

10 Bad Church Work Habits

CNN.com recently posted on 10 of the worst work habits. After reading the article, I could not help but to view these bad habits through the lens of church life. So I’ve reworked the top ten list as it pertains to the daily tasks of ministry. You can read the original...
The Demographic Shift in Metropolitan America

The Demographic Shift in Metropolitan America

It’s clear that many churches have experienced or will experience large changes in their communities and contexts in the near future. Studying these changes helps churches develop intentional outward strategies to reach people. The Brookings Institution recently...
What You Are Reading

What You Are Reading

My father, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote the following post after doing an unscientific Twitter survey. Feel free to chime in with your comments and some of your favorite books of the last two years. I returned to the...