Ministry Matters™

Who Are They? Serving the People Within Your Reach (Nov/Dec/Jan 2013-14)

In this issue, learn how an outwardly focused, missional understanding can transform your ministry, your congregation, and—most importantly—all those "others" within your reach.

In This Issue

Holy Conversations

Holy Conversations

By Circuit Rider
Would demographic and lifestyle information help your church fulfill its mission to serve the people within its reach? Can you share examples of how this has—or… read more
Understanding the People Within Your Reach

Understanding the People Within Your Reach

By Constance E. Stella
About a year ago, many of us were feeling battered by the national election. Remember the robo-calls? The constant TV ads? The reams of paper stuck in your storm door and mailbox? … read more
See, Know, and Serve

See, Know, and Serve

By Thomas G. Bandy
How did St. Paul do it? How did he manage to start and sustain so many different churches, in so many different cultures, in such a time of change? We have the same desire to… read more
Relearning My Own Hometown

Relearning My Own Hometown

By Jacob Armstrong
God called me to be a missionary. And then sent me to suburbia. It all started in a hotel room in Atlanta, where my wife and I pledged to God that we would go wherever God wanted … read more
Our Charge: Know and Serve Young Adults

Our Charge: Know and Serve Young Adults

By Emanuel Cleaver
A friend of mine invited me to go fishing with him. I’m not a fisherman. In an effort to show that I was not clueless, I bought my own equipment. My friend used crickets and … read more
Adapt to Thrive and Serve

Adapt to Thrive and Serve

By John Flowers, Karen Vannoy
Who is my neighbor?” The lawyer asked Jesus a good question, regardless of what motivated him to ask it. Jesus defined neighbor in the broadest terms, but we have narrowed… read more
How to Offer Worship for Those Within Your Reach

How to Offer Worship for Those Within Your Reach

By Lucinda S. Holmes
One of the biggest shifts in culture and religion today is that if people come to worship at all, it is with eagerness rather than curiosity. Those who do arrive at our church… read more
See and Befriend

See and Befriend

By George G. Hunter III
Jesus sent out his disciples as “salt” and “light,” to befriend and minister to people on their turf and to make more disciples among all people. Paul said … read more
Walking Your City's Streets with Nehemiah

Walking Your City's Streets with Nehemiah

By Joseph W. Daniels Jr.
What would it take for you to think of your community as your congregation? Most church leaders—lay and clergy—don’t think like this. In fact, when I ask this… read more
How New Disciples Are Within Your Reach

How New Disciples Are Within Your Reach

By Kay L. Kotan
How do we learn to share our faith without feeling anxiety or being perceived as just plain weird? That seems to be a common question these days. There is fear and anxiety at the… read more
Do You See Them? A New Paradigm of Family

Do You See Them? A New Paradigm of Family

By Linda Ranson Jacobs
Here’s the church. Here’s the steeple. Open the door and, wait . . . Where are all the people? The above is from a cute nursery ditty many of us grew up quoting, but… read more
Getting to Know the Neighbors: A (Turnaround) Case Study

Getting to Know the Neighbors: A (Turnaround) Case Study

By Rosario Picardo
Epworth UMC, Lexington, Kentucky, circa 1950: a five-hundred-seat sanctuary filled to capacity, a full roster of Sunday school classes, and over one hundred missionaries and… read more
Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

By Paul Scott Wilson
The Lessons in Précis While waiting and asking for hope, we are given relentless images of estrangement and parched life turned into deep relief. Isaiah 35:1-10 Sorrow… read more
Review: Overflow

Review: Overflow

By William H. Willimon
This book came to me just when I needed it. This past June, the bishop appointed me to a church. The congregation had previously suffered decline but had recently experienced some … read more
Review: Calvin vs Wesley

Review: Calvin vs Wesley

By William H. Willimon
As a campus minister at Duke, I watched with dismay as some of our brightest young Christians were attracted to the Reformed World of John Calvin. Part of the attraction was that… read more
Review: Preparing Couples for Love and Marriage

Review: Preparing Couples for Love and Marriage

By Bromleigh McCleneghan
There are pastors who don’t like doing weddings, and I can empathize. The wedding industrial complex has turned what might be (and once was) a simple and lovely public… read more
Review: Youth Ministry

Review: Youth Ministry

By Eric Van Meter
David Olshine, a veteran youth pastor with more than thirty years on the job, sees plenty wrong with American youth ministry. The primary question in his latest book, however, is… read more
Review: Bounty

Review: Bounty

By William H. Willimon
As a college chaplain and professor, I missed many aspects about my former life as a pastor; I never missed the fall stewardship campaign. Giving to the church is, in my… read more