BCNE News
The latest news from our network of New England churches. Looking for our New England Perspectives Articles? Click here.
Starting points for church revitalization
Did you know that most churches have a 30-year life cycle before they start to decline?
That’s why revitalization is so important. But be warned, the process does not come naturally to churches. As a matter of fact, leading a revitalization effort is one of the hardest things you can do, so understanding the process of revival is crucial
If your church needs to work on revitalization, here are some starting points for you to think through.
How should Christians treat illegal immigrants?
Caravans of migrants marching toward our southern border. President Trump promising to build a wall. Sanctuary cities refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Politicians calling to decriminalize the illegal crossing of US borders. Congress’s frustrating failure to reform immigration laws, making a path to citizenship next to impossible for the 11.1 million illegal immigrants currently living in the US.
These events have pressed upon us a question that evangelicals need to answer: How should our churches treat the people who live in our communities without legal status?
Your first week of revitalization
Your first week of revitalization is essential. Knowing this, you must immediately begin to think proactively and plan to build alignment for future success. You will never get this time again, so it is important to focus on the most urgent task: assessing the situation by talking to people.
When Jesus doesn’t cure your mental illness
When I became a believer in Christ, I automatically thought my life would get better, that all my problems would go away because Jesus died on the cross for me. Don’t get me wrong, things changed. In fact, I became radically different. But since knowing Jesus, I have still struggled through depression and anxiety.
While wrestling through the whys, I spent a lot of time asking God if I was really a believer because there were days where I could not get out of bed, days that I was lying face-down on the floor battling anxiety, and days where I thought it would be easier to end my life.
Building a healthy multicultural church
The Bible is clear and repetitive in articulating God’s heart for all peoples. The book of Revelation tells us that God calls forth people from every tribe, nation, and tongue to worship Him, making heaven the picture of multicultural beauty. As the visible Church on earth, our focus must always be to try and worship in a manner that most reflects the Promised Land which we will one day call home. Even if a local church finds itself to be in a mono-ethnic location, the call to see multicultural worship is still valid and can still be accomplished by supporting such works in different locations and by sending missionaries to proclaim the Gospel among different people groups.
Jesus and His teachings
Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to walk among us. We must understand some critical things about Him in order to maintain a stable faith.
Why study and obey Scripture?
We need to study, know and obey the Word of God. We can’t underestimate the importance of this issue in our Christian lives.
Encouraging church leaders
Church leaders often find themselves in a bitter and lonely place. When I stepped into ministry leadership, I feared the high and even unrealistic expectations people would place on both me and my family. I had been through an intense personal struggle to understand and finally accept God’s call upon my life. As a pastor’s kid, I had in-house experience of how people can be so insensitive to the love and care of the shepherd who God has placed in their lives.
What the Northeast needs from missionaries
There is a constant call within the northeastern part of the United States for laborers to move to the area and join the battle to see the region re-awakened to the power of the Gospel. Church planting ministries regularly recruit and promote vision tours in an attempt to get more missionaries to the shores of the proverbial Babylon that is the New England states, plus New York and perhaps New Jersey.
The procrastinator’s gospel
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. When it comes to procrastination, I find myself on the struggle bus. It goes a little something like this:
Milk vs. solid food
How do you know when you or your church needs milk? Or if it’s time to move on to solid food? The answer to that question is found in the overall context of Hebrews.
Praise God in the morning
Your alarm goes off in the morning, rousing you from your sleep. What is your first response? If you’re like me, you may check Facebook, look at missed emails, respond to text messages or read the news. You do all of this before you even get out of the bed.
From the very moment of waking up, the world is already fighting for our attention. And in this moment we often neglect to look to God in worship and praise. Why am I passionate about this?
The power of an invitation
It happened as I was on my way to play a board game with friends from church. Someone in my car asked, “So, Molly, why are you going to this?”
Caught off-guard, my eyes switched back and forth between the road ahead and the rearview mirror as I tried to gauge the sincerity of the question. After quick deliberation in silence, I said, “Well, I guess the first reason would be that I was invited.”
Ethnic churches and the challenge of reaching second-generation Americans
Approximately 50% of BCNE churches in Greater Boston are ethnic churches. And God is at work among them. In fact, some of the largest churches in Boston happen to be Asian, African-American and Haitian! Very impressively, most of the pioneers who planted these churches did so without the benefits of special training, financial support or church partnerships that many church planters receive today. Ethnic churches in Greater Boston are robust, and continue to multiply. I love attending the worship gatherings and enjoy having fellowship with the gifted pastors who lead these churches. Yet there is a unique, life-or-death challenge that virtually every ethnic church pastor faces: the challenge of reaching second-generation Americans.
Six ways to cultivate prayer in your small group
Small groups are very important to the health of any church. They are places for individuals to grow in their faith and to build relationships with others. One important aspect of any small group should be prayer, but many small group leaders share their concern that prayer time sometimes becomes stale.
Fighting the wrong battles
In our culture – Western culture – we fight way too much. If you consider the fact that we fight about our politics, at our jobs, within our families and within our communities, it seems that we are addicted to fighting.
Mud wrestling
You know those gentle proddings from Jesus – the kind that easily guide you along life’s journey, leading you away from one thing and toward another? Apparently those don't work on me. I seem to need the spiritual equivalent of a two-by-four upside the head to get my attention.
Reflections on the death of a loved one
My family recently suffered the loss of my mother-in-law, a wonderful woman of God who was taken from us rather suddenly by pancreatic cancer.
My mind turns to the story of the raising of Lazarus in John 11 when Jesus Himself lost someone He loved (John 11:3, 5), and I ponder three questions:
A white man’s religion?
Ministry in the urban context comes with its own set of challenges. Among them are the objections to Christianity that run deep within inner-city communities of color. As I pastor in a neighborhood made up largely of ethnic minorities, it is not uncommon for me to hear someone dismiss the Christian faith purely because it is perceived to be “the white man’s religion, meant to oppress ethnic minorities.” It is important to note that this characterization of Christianity is not completely unfounded.