Lent: Seeking the desert

I’m away from my pulpit this weekend, but here’s a link to a lenten meditation I preached last year titled “Sent Into The Desert.” I hope you find it helpful.  May you find the wildness of God in the desert during this season of reflection. – Chuck

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The purpose of this blog

I’ve seen an increase in readers to this blog since the fall, and I want to say two things: 1. Welcome! 2.  Here’s why I do this: To be helpful. I try to offer practical, effective, and affordable ideas for small churches (and other sizes, too) that really work.  I’ve tried most of the things [...]

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‘Emerging Adult’ new term for 20-somethings

Today Amazon delivered my copy of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett.  A research professor of psychology at Clark University, Arnett became fascinated at the different choices 18-t0-20-something year olds were making compared to preceding generations.  Further research bore out his initial findings:  people 18-29 [...]

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New name, same place

You may notice that the header now says, ChuckWarnock.com instead of Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor. I hope this change will make the blog easier to find. Here’s the skinny: When I won Outreach magazine’s blog contest in 2006, they picked the name, set up the header and turned the blog over to me. The [...]

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Let’s stop blaming homeowners for our economic crisis

Politicians and pundits quickly found an easy target to pin the nation’s economic crisis on — homeowners who bought more house than they could afford.  I, for one, think we should stop blaming homeowners for bad public policy, poor government oversight, and greedy lenders. “But,” the critics argue, “it’s the irresponsible homeowners who caused this [...]

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It’s no longer about programs

I grew up in churches that had programs for everybody and everything.  We had programs for preschoolers, children, teens, adults, and senior adults.  And, we had missions programs, Bible study programs, training programs, music programs, and sometimes programs about programs (I am not kidding about that last one). Well, it’s no longer about programs.  I [...]

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Church is a conversation

The buzzword in marketing now is “conversation.”  The Cluetrain Manifesto popularized that idea with its statement that “markets are conversations.”  The authors describe a dialogue between marketer and consumer, not just the old one-way deal — we make it, you buy it, that settles it. Now consumers want to interact with their brands.  If you [...]

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Sermon: Let Light Shine Out of Darkness

This is the sermon I’m preaching tomorrow, Sunday, February 22, 2009, on Transfiguration Sunday. Let Light Shine Out of Darkness 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (NIV)

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If churches got reviews

Films get them, so do books, and even products.  What are they?  Reviews.  Five stars.  Personal experiences from real people who used/read/saw whatever it is they are reviewing.  But what if churches got reviews?  Well, if they did, here’s one you’d like to get.  Thanks to Shaun King at Courageous Church in Atlanta for the [...]

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Styrofoam cups and plastic plates

We buy them by the case — styrofoam cups and plastic plates.  We use lots of them, cases and cases each year, because we’re Baptist and we eat a lot.  We wouldn’t think of making you eat with plastic forks and knives because they break. Nope, we use real stainless steel silverware, but we pour [...]

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