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My Seminary is Closing
screenshot, The Way Forward (February 7, 2020) Last night I received “A Message from HSU President Eric Bruntmyer.” Given Hardin-Simmons University‘s recent restructuring I opened the e-mail and read...
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My Seminary is Closing – The Bigger Picture
A week ago today I shared the news that my seminary was closing. When I wrote that blog post the news had been official for less than 24 hours. I was stunned. I relied heavily on the official...
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UCC Decline Enters 7th Decade
Sixteen months ago I wrote a post titled “6 Decades of Decline in the United Church of Christ,” which presented a detailed analysis of the decline in number of congregations and number of members from...
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Dear HSU Trustees
Dear Hardin-Simmons University Trustees, The more I learn, the more disappointed I am in your decision to close Logsdon Seminary. Rather than writing a detailed critique of the process utilized to...
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Presbyterian Decline: PCUSA -The First 35 Years
The Presbyterian Church (USA) was created by a merger of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the Presbyterian Church in the United States in June 1983. The newly formed denomination...
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Worship In the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
I am one of more than 16,000 members of a Facebook group called Things They Didn’t Teach Us in Seminary. While I had an excellent seminary experience, I did not learn about every possible ministry...
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Ministry in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Over the last 10 days, COVID-19 has increasingly impacted all areas of life for many Americans. A week ago today I wrote “Worship in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic” to share my experience of...
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Life in the Time of The COVID-19 Pandemic
This is a blog about matters of faith that matter. I used my two most recent posts for introductory content relative to how worship and ministry are changing as a result of COVID-19: Worship in the...
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Easter Miracles: Empty Tomb, Empty Churches
After more than forty years of experience (including twenty years in parish ministry), I knew the Easter morning rhythm: sunrise service outside (usually with a modest crowd) followed by sanctuary...
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Church Changes in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
photo by Greg Smith Nearly every American church has implemented significant changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The surveys mentioned below offer data about changes that have occurred and...
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40 New Online Worship Experiences
Online worship is what many are calling the new normal. Earlier today I asked my Facebook friends to share links to the online services they planned to participate in today. I was overwhelmed by the...
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Church Identity in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
photo by Greg Smith This morning one of the memories Facebook thought I’d like to see was a picture of Fort Myers Congregational United Church of Christ’s monument sign from five years ago. I took the...
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The Coming Wave of Permanent Church Closures
Last September I debunked the popular notion that 10,000 congregations close each year in America. Based on the best information available, the number of congregations closing each year in recent...
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PC(USA) Membership Declines by “Only 50K”
The Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) recently published denominational statistics for 2019. I first learned of this new data by reading an article titled “PC(USA)...
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Not Comfortable Returning to In Person Worship
According to a June 2020 survey conducted by the American Enterprise Institute nearly 2 out of 3 Americans (64%) are not comfortable returning to in person worship at this point in the COVID-19...
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Nearly 3 Million Young Adults Moved Back Home
photo by Greg Smith Philip Cohen, a sociologist who teaches at the University of Maryland – College Park, recently wrote about the sudden spike in young people (aged 18-29) living in the home of a...
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10 In Person Worship Experiences from 2020
It has been over four months since I last attended a worship service alongside hundreds of other people. And, I have no idea when I might next have a similar – recognizing in a COVID-19 world that any...
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Most Congregations Now Offer In Person Worship
How many Protestant congregations in America are offering one or more in person worship experiences on a given weekend? A survey of American Protestant pastors conducted July 20-22, 2020 by LifeWay...
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Should Churches Offer in Person Worship?
Perhaps no issue is as controversial in church life right now as the question of whether or not to offer in person worship. Yesterday, Pew Research published the findings of their survey of 10,211...
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Police Killings of Unarmed Black Americans
Last week Public Religion Research Institute published “Summer Unrest over Racial Injustice Moves the Country, But Not Republicans or White Evangelicals.” The article begins with an exploration...
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