March 13, 2026
Kent Fillinger uses superhero teams to encourage pastors not to serve in isolation. He highlights rising pastoral loneliness and offers practical ways solo ministers can find support, accountability, and encouragement through trusted ministry relationships.
March 13, 2026
Terrence Turman argues friendship is a neglected spiritual discipline for many pastors and ministry leaders. Citing research on loneliness, he offers practical nudges for living as a Christian first, building community, and keeping friendships alive.
November 5, 2025
A sermon should be long enough to adequately exegete and apply the main point of the passage, but short enough to leave mature Christians willing to listen a few minutes longer.
September 3, 2025
Dealing with various tensions is a reality in ministry. And experiencing tension often leads to stress and fatigue. These issues must be managed.
While a minister may not want to know what individuals in their church give, it’s wise for them to know about the annual budget, the average weekly or monthly giving, how much debt, if any, the church has, and what percentage of the budget is being spent to service the debt.
June 18, 2024
We seem to be returning to those “thrilling days of the yesteryear," as more and more Americans are toting guns, even in church. News reports indicate a growing number of churches are training church members as armed guards. Is this a good idea? . . .
March 18, 2024
How do elders or pastors know their churches are sliding toward closure? Christian Standard posed that question to Stan Granberg, vice chairman of Heritage 21, which specializes in helping noninstrumental Churches of Christ that are facing closure. . . .
Dr. Brian Baldwin has been hired as dean of students at Great Lakes Christian College, Lansing, Mich. Also briefs about Tina Wilson's new book, FAME, IDES, and more. . . .
May 15, 2023
With the rise in online church services, many have different opinions on the acceptability or validity of online church attendance for those with the ability to attend in person. Lifeway Research finds pastors and churchgoers split over the question. But other research projects may provide more clarity on tangible benefits that come exclusively from physical attendance. . . .
March 20, 2023
What if the Lord himself doesn’t like our worship services and would rather not attend? Through the prophet Amos, God left no doubt how he felt about the Israelites’ gatherings. . . .
March 1, 2023
By Kent E. Fillinger In Bible college, I encountered this simple but powerful two-question outline to discuss the resurrection of Jesus: What proves the resurrection? And what does the resurrection prove? I don’t have the space to unpack the answers to these questions, but I do want to explore what people believe about the resurrection of Jesus to help you consider the array of beliefs you might encounter in your church (and with your family) this Easter. I also want to examine current beliefs regarding the afterlife—heaven, hell, and reincarnation. Views on the Resurrection The 2020 Lifeway Research State of
January 1, 2023
By Kent E. Fillinger A January 2021 Lifeway Research survey found 49 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they frequently hear members of their congregation repeating conspiracy theories about something happening in our country. Around 1 in 8 pastors (13 percent) strongly agree their congregants are sharing conspiracy theories. WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS An October 2020 research report found that Facebook users engage with misinformation 70 million times per month on average. Though far fewer than the 2016 peak of 200 million monthly fake news engagements, it still is no small figure. On Twitter, people share false content 4 million
March 1, 2022
By Kent E. Fillinger Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Since the pandemic started two years ago, there have been an endless number of “experts” making countless predictions about the future of everything—including the church. Plenty of churches offered an online campus or church online on various platforms before COVID-19. Broadcast methods varied by church; the main options were livestreaming, on-demand full service (worship and message), on-demand message only, and rebroadcast (simulated live). A 2018 survey by Vanderbloeman and Jay Kranda revealed the top three broadcast platforms were Churchonlineplatform.com, Facebook Live, and YouTube.
January 1, 2022
What Independent Christian Churches Have to Celebrate . . . and the Challenges Ahead We live in a world of polls describing a hopelessly post-Christian culture in which the church is constantly losing ground. A 2020 Gallup Poll found the number of Americans now affiliated with a church is just 47 percent, a sub-50 percent number for the first time in 80 years. Cary Nieuwhof shared a recent Barna/Stadia Poll that stated 30 percent fewer people in Generation Z (those born 1999 to 2015) attend church than baby boomers (those born 1946 to 1964). Another Barna study informed us that
October 28, 2021
A comparison of Lifeway Research studies from 2015 and 2021 indicates that, despite the challenges of COVID-19, there has been virtually no change in the number of evangelical and historically Black Protestant senior pastors leaving the pulpit each year.
June 8, 2021
A recent survey indicates Christian church and church of Christ pastors fall in the middle of the spectrum among Protestant pastors in terms of their views on the morality and legality of using marijuana.
The speaker lineup for the 2021 SpireConference is announced; High Hill Christian Camp is undergoing expansion; plus other briefs.
September 16, 2020
Volunteers in the North Heights neighborhood of Joplin, Mo., spent the weekend “digging up brick sidewalks and working to restore them,” according to a story in the Joplin Globe. The bulk of the work occurred in the area around the Neighborhood Life House, a church-supported nonprofit that provides programs for children and adults. Volunteers with NLH and another neighborhood group provided the manpower. The sidewalks were identified as a key neighborhood concern in a survey earlier this year. “We’re restoring lives and we’re restoring the neighborhood and trying to put some life back in it,” NLH board member Neil Robinson
By Kent E. Fillinger CLICK HERE to download the printable version of this list featured in “The Final Word” of our July 2020 issue. The votes of white evangelicals impacted the last presidential election in a measurable way. A Lifeway Research study determined 4 of 5 such voters (80 percent) cast their ballots for Donald Trump in 2016. But it’s wise to understand that “evangelicals” are not a homogenous group. The same LifeWay study found that 4 of 5 black evangelicals (82 percent) voted for Hillary Clinton, while Hispanic evangelical voters were evenly split—47 percent Clinton, 48 percent Trump. Looked
May 17, 2020
By Kent E. Fillinger Discipleship is a hot topic in church ministries and global missions today. Churches are placing a greater emphasis on disciple-making. And missionaries are more focused on trying to establish disciple-making movements around the world. As I prepared to write this article, I received an evite to attend a webinar about “discipling people online” in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. In our annual survey, we asked a series of questions about disciple-making processes in churches, and we also asked leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. Would you describe your church today as a “disciple-making church”?
April 7, 2026
John B. Penrose Jr
April 7, 2026
David Faust
March 27, 2026
Rick Cherok