Jesus Calls His First Disciples

Recent Posts

• Denominations, beware! There’s competition!
• How Does Your Church Rate?
• Five Ps that Are the Cornerstone of Modern Evangelism
• Can the Church Handle Diversity?
• Here We Go Again: History Revisited
• The Year 17 Is Year for Reformation
• Time to Revisit the Cost of Discipleship
• Fishbowl Thinking: Part 2
  The Resurrection Story Should Not Excuse Church Failure
• The Fish Bowl Leadership Model
  and How It Needs Fresh Water
• Wishful Thinking May Create Predatory Practices in the Church
• What Small Churches Need to Know About Hiring Church Consultants
• The ELCA’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• When Failure Is the Desired Option
• The Lutheran Grinch Ponders His Evil Ways—or NOT!
• Church Leaders Can Learn from Our Nation’s Leadership Crisis
• Checking “None” Is No Indication of Atheism
• Most Churches Are Small for Good Reason
• The City Is Once Again the Place to Be
• Study Explores Effectiveness of Church Councils
• Love of Money May Be the Root of All Evil
• The Modern Gift of Agency: Part 1
• Why Pastors Need to Attend Civic Meetings
• How Congregations Are Funding Their Own Demise
• How Failing to Embrace Technology Is Dooming the Church
• Challenges for Online Thought Leadership in the Church
• What Is the True Church?
• What to Do About the DeChurched
• Defining the Future Seminary
• To Be or Not to Be “Church”
• “Follow Me” Means “Take A Chance”
• Dignity—A Return to Camelot
• Can Small Churches Reach Youth?
• A Moving Story that Touches on Black Lives Matter
• What Is It About Tradition?
• A Search for Miracles in the Church
• Listening for Ideas
• Internet Ministry Benefits Mission
• Crashing Through 7 Roadblocks to Internet Ministry
• Back to Social Media
  On to the Future
• Congregational Wealth: More Than Money
• Black Lives Matter:
  An Issue that Won’t Go Away
• Measuring Sermon Engagement
• The Church: A Pioneer in Holacracy
• Can Holacracy Save the Church?
• If time can change, why can’t we?
• Handling Baggage in the New Year
• The Structure of the Past
• Another Christian tradition uses holacracy concepts
• How Can the Church Approach
  Meaningful Structural Change?
• How Lutherans Blew It
  and How We Might Recover
• Christian Influencers: Do Women Count?
• Can Christians Work Together?
• What gets into people at Christmas?
• Now is the time for Christians to speak
• How Can Encouragement
  Help Small Congregations?
• Church Leaders, Beware!
• Teaching the Internet to Churches
• Time for Advent!
  Two new resources!
• The Quandary Facing Small Church Leaders
• Birds of a Feather
  Do Nothing Together
• What the Church Can Learn from Ferguson
• Why Blogging Leads Change
• Stop Taking Volunteers for Granted
• Announcing 2×2’s SlideShow Club
• Finally, A Church Leader Who Understands Change
• Bullies in the Church—
  Taking the Wider View
• A Letter to Presiding Bishop Eaton
• Why Offerings Are Killing the Local Church
• Expanding the Voice of the Church —
  for Our Own Good
• Never Lock Your Church Doors Again
• 17 Reasons the Church Cannot Change
  and What We Can Do About It
• Where do hurting Christians go?
• Understanding Hate
• Can the Church Lead the Discussion on Racial Issues?
• Stop. Look. Listen.
• The Growing Number of Unchurched
• What “Ownership” Means in the Church
• Revisiting Church Membership
• Looking for Innovation in the Church
• A Touching Story of Faith Among the Rules
• Labeling Church Culture
• Understanding Small Churches and Transformation
• Churches: Sitting Ducks for Those with Wicked Motives
• Seeing an Old Church with Fresh Eyes
• A Word of Advice for Today’s Clergy
• How Will We Measure Success in the Church?
• Watching Faith Come Alive
• Why Church Revival Is Better
  than Church Replanting
• Don’t Be Boring, the Pope Says!
• SEPA Synod Assembly Gears Up for Annual Meeting
• “Clergy for Hire” = Cult-leadership?
• When an Offer of Prayer Just Isn’t Enough
• Church Bombings Again in Pakistan
• Little Change in the Sea of Changes
• Transparency in Church Finances Remains A Problem
• Proactive Caring Requires No Proof of Need
• Want to Grow Your Mission?
  Let Other People Do the Work
• 20 Reasons to Avoid the Internet in Ministry
• Martin Luther vs Barbie?
• The Virtual Church Is Real
• The True Strength of the Horizontal Church
• Accepting Vulnerability in the Pulpit
  Why It Is A Bad Idea
• A Post Worth Sharing on Ash Wednesday
• You Can’t Build Church by Rewriting the Bible
• South Carolina Courts Rule in Favor of Redeemer
• A Prayer for Our Church
• Happy Birthday, 2×2
• Let’s Start the Discussion
  with Loaded Language
• Service or Worship? Chicken or Egg?
• Why is Sunday morning the most segregated hour in America?
• Run for Your Life. What Do You Carry?
• What Is A Church Member Worth?
• Careful! Children Are Watching!
• Behind the Rhetoric of Church Replanters
• Cooperation Within the Church
• Congregational Resolutions for the New Year
• Problems with Church Replanting: Part 2
• Things Most Church Replanters Don’t Talk About
• The Keys to the Modern Church
• 2×2 In the New Year
• Six Christmases Locked Out of the ELCA
• Take the Easy Road—the One that Bypasses Calvary
• Ring Out the Old—Bring In the New
• Five Deadly Sins of the Modern Church
• Helping the Children of Pakistan
• Giving Tuesday: Missing the Point
• Remembering Some Other Veterans
• An All Saints Day Message for A Power-Driven Church
• Reformation Never Ends
• 7 Ways Your Church Can Go Viral
• Where Is the Crisis in the Episcopal Church Taking Lutherans?
• How to Find Leaders That “Smell of Sheep”
• 5 Lessons Churches Can Learn from a Pop Star
• The World Has Changed and So Have the Rules of Leadership
• When did God change?
• What If Churches Refused to Use the Word “Can’t”
• Labor Day: Celebration of the Church Worker
• The Small Church—Lost in Time
• All Church Eyes on Ferguson
• Clergy in Ferguson Make A Difference
• Look Again at All Those Small Churches
• How Full Communion
  with the Episcopal Church
  Hurts Lutheran Congregations
• Do Dollars Talk in Church Leadership?
• Suggested Reading from A 2×2 Subscriber
• Wise Pastors Respect Lay Talent
• Serving in the Zone (Finding Passion)
• The Vertical Church Reaches A Common Stalemate
• The Horizontal Church at Work
• Addressing Failure in the Church
• Do you have a plan for engaging visitors?
• News from Pakistan
• The Horizontal Church: the Networked Church
• Happy Independence Day
• The Horizontal Church
• Revisiting an Old Video
• The Horizontal Church: Part 2
• Introducing the Horizontal Church
• PBS Features Philadelphia Churches in Danger of Closing
• Big Changes Coming on 2×2
• 27 BIG Mistakes Churches Make Every Day
• A New Pentecost
• Slideshow: Pentecost in Art
• The Voice of the Modern Church
• A Poet Never Dies
• Adult Object Lesson: Ascension Sunday
• Slideshow: Ascension Sunday
• The Process of Discernment: Group vs Individual
• Object Lesson: The Pomegranate
• Slideshow: Fifth Sunday after Easter
• Discernment—A New Word for an Old Process
• Slideshow: Easter 4 —I Am the Way
• The Parable of the Liturgical Sorting Hat
• Lone Rangers Often Fail, Expert Says
• The Lord is the Shepherd
• Object Lesson: U-turn on the Road to Emmaus
• Slideshow for Second Sunday after Easter
• The Changing Role of Pastor
• Object Lessons from Art—The Road to Emmaus
• Why Take Your Synod Assembly Seriously?
• Demographic Experts Lead the Church Astray
• Weekly Slideshow: Thomas-My Lord and My God
• Adult Object Lesson: John 20:19-31
• A Cure for the Easter Monday Blues
• Redeemer’s Easter 2014
• Core Non-Theological Beliefs of A Successful Church
• 8 Habits to Nurture Success in Church
• Resurrection: The Goal of Transformation
• Pakistani Christians March on Palm Sunday
• A Remarkable Palm Sunday
• Thou Shalt Not Steal—Think Again!
• 5 Important Reasons to Get Members to Camp
• Adult Object Lesson: Palm Sunday
• Slideshow: Palm Sunday
• What ever happened to Palm Sunday?
• Leading or Following: It’s A Point of View
• 5 Key Performance Indicators for the Modern Church
• Adult Object Lesson: The Raising of Lazarus
• It’s Not Too Late
• Slideshow for Lent 5
• Adult Object Lesson: Jesus Cures the Blind Man