As churches face declining numbers and look to new ministry models to make ends meet. more mainline churches are cutting back to halftime or one-quarter-time packages for clergy, who increasingly work second jobs. In particular, the unpaid cleric model is gaining traction among Episcopalians.

I am a trend watcher, particularly among churches in America. The three trends I've recently noticed are not new. What is new is that a relatively few churches embraced these concepts a few years ago. Today, they are becoming normative. These three approaches have moved from the category of "exception" to the category of "mainstream."

Revival can stand off at a distance not because our churches actively embrace the horrible but because they don’t actively reject mediocrity and halfheartedness and distraction. To put it another way, until the only reason to go to our churches is that we are reaching by faith for the obviously glorious in Christ alone, we will inevitably sink into the in-between kinda sorta okay allowable.

Many pastors have learned and practiced a deficient model of leadership in the last century: the Superman model. A Superman pastor sees every ministry as either his responsibility or the responsibility of the paid staff. He functions like a CEO, like a paid professional, like the minister. It's his role to do the church's work, and it's the congregation's role to reap the benefits of his expertise. There are a few things in this model we can commend. Ultimately, however, the failures of this ministry model are grave.

By member size, the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) is no powerhouse. Its membership of 251,727 is 16 million fewer than the Southern Baptist Convention, and it's about a tenth the size of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. But the CRC is no second-string player when it comes to members' giving. A new report found that CRC members gave 6.1 percent of their incomes to the church.

Amid the strife of the Culture Wars and the heated partisan divides between Red and Blue states, one thing seems to bring together a great many Americans across both sides of the nation's secular/sacred divide: a deep, abiding sense of amusement and incredulity—if not outright contempt—for purveyors and supporters of the so-called "Prosperity Gospel".

While nineteenth century churches constantly struggled against sheep stealing (getting people in some nearby church to change membership into your church), the modern church has replaced that with shepherd stealing. It is so widespread and tacitly accepted that it is often practiced right out in the open, like legalized prostitution.

Last Saturday, I had the incredible honor of becoming “The Father of the Bride.” What is there not to love about being the Father of the Bride? My oldest daughter, Janae, married the love of her life, a fine young gentleman (the whole O’Connor family loves) named Jonathan Kirchner. For all of you, my Art, Life & Faith friends, you know one of my deepest desires is to help you cultivate a beautiful life. Today is my privilege to share one of the most beautiful days of my life. Read on…

The millennial generation's much-talked-about departure from church might lead those of us over 30 to conclude that they have little interest in Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, their spiritual coming of age has coincided with many Protestant pastors relying on a consumer business model to grow and sustain their churches. This template for doing church and the millennials' hunger for authenticity has caused an ideological collision.

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans told Gallup they rarely or never attended religious services in 2012. And many pastors blame the secularization of Sundays, led by a commonly perceived culprit: children's sports.