My History With Codependency and Ministry – A Path Toward a Healthier Church Leadership Culture
Our churches are charged with anxiety. They are charged with anxiety because we have set ourselves up as the ones who have perfect doctrine and practice. Once you have claimed that you will always struggle with anxiety because there is great fear that you will mess something up and ruin your brand. The only way […]
What Would it Take to Get the Attention of a Dying Church’s Leadership? Unfortunately, A Lot More Than This Article
When Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man asks if he can go back from the dead and warn his brother. Jesus said even if a dead man rises and goes back to warn them they won’t listen. They have Moses and the prophets. If that isn’t enough, it […]
Churches of Christ in Decline – Seven Things We Can Do To Transition to a Better Future
I posted a YouTube video earlier in the week that reviewed an article by Stan Granberg from the Great Commission Research Journal from the Fall of 2018 on the decline of Churches of Christ as a case study. Stan’s article outlines a number of crucial truths: 1 – Our attendance figures are in a steady […]
One Word for A Better Future for Churches of Christ
Humility. Humility. We have traditionally been a very proud bunch. Proud we don’t act like the denominations. Proud that our doctrine is pure. Proud we are the only ones going to heaven. Proud that we are sound. Proud that we are acappella. Proud that we have biblical leadership right. Proud that we aren’t like others. […]
Church Co-Dependency Characteristics
In her book, Codependent No More, Melody Beattie makes clear being co-dependent “does not mean we’re bad, defective, or inferior. Some of us learned these behaviors as children. Other people learned them later in life. We may have learned some of these things from our interpretation of religion…most of us started doing these things out […]
An Invitation to Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration (June 26-28)
I am really excited to highlight an event that is going to make a big difference in the kingdom – Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. This will be my first year to attend an event that I have wanted to go to for some time and this will be my first year to teach a class! I […]
Church Co-Dependency & Naming Elephants: Fellowship
Did you know if you commented on the last post in the affirmative, chances are someone took note? There is a segment of our fellowship that marks people. They decide who is and who isn’t in fellowship. That idea isn’t entirely unbiblical when done biblically but it isn’t done biblically. We have publications that make […]
Church Co-dependency & Naming the Elephants: Tradition
In my previous post on Co-dependent Churches: A Major Barrier to Change I talked about how we have several elephants in the room. Let’s talk about them more specifically. We have a real problem with tradition. It shouldn’t be this way because we have always been about the scriptures and criticized other groups for their […]
Bringing the Generations Together By Dr. Holly Allen
Holly AllenChair, InterGenerate ConferenceProfessor of Christian Ministries & Family ScienceLipscomb University, Nashville, TN Throughout much of Christian history, the whole body of Christ, that is, all the generations, met together for ministry and worship as well as for most other gatherings; intergenerationality was the norm. However, in the last several decades, all but the smallest […]
Codependent Churches – a Major Barrier to Change
People who grow up with an alcoholic parent know there is a problem but no one is allowed to talk about it. The elephant is in the room but no one can name it. Everyone dances around it. When visitors come by we have tremendous pressure to make the unhealthy things look healthy and put […]