It's more than likely the people in your community who aren't "attending church" have no interest in attending yours. It doesn't matter how kickin' your band is or how spiffy your super-friendly guest services team looks in their new polo shirts or how relevant the teaching is - even if it's delivered by an incredibly hip dude with a Mumford-esque beard, black-framed glasses and Toms. It's not you, though. The truth is those folks who don't attend church aren't interested in attending any church. For more than 60% of people - and that number is growing - the Sunday morning worship gathering is no longer the primary on-ramp to a life of faith. Some bold ideas

While politicians hotly debate the legalities surrounding unaccompanied migrant children, the

In an accompanying story, Bishop Jim Dorff of the Southwest Texas Conference how unforgettable his visit to the border was. "I shall always remember the hard, hot work being done by volunteers of all kinds and all faith groups, working side by side," he said. "I shall always remember the humanness evidenced by Border Patrol officers working overtime for weeks and doing work they have not been trained to do, but doing the best they could under the circumstances." Full story

How to be a colorful communicator by Tom Fuerst

The consistency of standing before the congregation each week drew my attention to some things I'd never seen before. It seemed each week there were large parts of my sermon to which people were incredibly engaged and aware, but other parts in which their engagement seemed to subside. Do people just have short attention spans? Do people not know how to sit still for twenty-five minutes and listen? Am I just a roller coaster of boring? It turns out, the answer had little to do with my hearers and a lot more to do with me. As I observed them, I noticed that it wasn't just times in the sermon but actually kinds of rhetoric within the sermon. Read more

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