
Ministering in grief: Presence, peace and what not to do
Ministry provides us with a front-row seat to the full range of human experience. One week, you are standing in a sanctuary decorated with flowers, watching a young couple promise forever.

Ministry provides us with a front-row seat to the full range of human experience. One week, you are standing in a sanctuary decorated with flowers, watching a young couple promise forever.

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Over the years, I’ve studied churches that have done a good job not only of reaching people, but also of keeping them/assimilating them. Here are seven components of effective assimilation I’ve seen:

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An established church carries something precious: history. Over the years, people have prayed in those rooms, cried in those pews, laughed in those hallways, and learned to trust God through ordinary Sundays and unexpected storms. That kind of legacy is a gift.

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Crises come without warning. When they arrive in a church or ministry, they require the fully devoted attention of pastors, elders and ministry leaders. No matter what is written on your calendar for the day, it all changes when there is a crisis.
You have probably heard some of the troubling statistics about teens and young adults. The data points are piling up like symptoms for a very ill patient.
“We’ve never done it that way… but I’m willing to try it.” This was the response of one of our church’s worship team leaders after I shared a plan to return from the pandemic that would stretch our all-volunteer team to the limits.