Every church faces tough decisions. Perhaps one of the most highly publicized examples this year was the controversy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church over its new pastor, Tullian Tchividjian.
We want to compile stories about dilemmas like this from around the country. Then we’ll turn those stories into case studies that can help church leaders learn how to work through their own ministry dilemmas.
But to do this, we need the help of our readers. So we’re asking all of you to email us (BCL at christianitytoday.com) if you know about a case in which a church worked through a difficult decision. Since such situations are often very sensitive, we ask you to be careful about any names and details you choose to give us (we will be doubly careful on our end). But any lead is helpful–even if you only know the name of a pastor that you think we should talk to.
We’re especially interested in cases that touch on the following two issues:
Budget pinches: During these last couple of years, lots of churches have had to make hard decisions about what people to lay off, ministries to cut, and so forth. We want to find cases that can help other church boards think through the different priorities that must be weighed when making those kinds of decisions.
Generational issues: “Intergenerational” is a big buzzword right now, and for good reason. The church has segregated itself by age too deeply. Still, it is sometimes better to group people with their peers. How do churches decide which way to go, with fellowship groups, worship services, and so forth? Especially if the leadership of the church and the congregation are at odds on the importance of being intergenerational.
There are also a whole host of other potential age-related issues in church: how old is old enough to lead; what ages get the most platform time; does our church communicate using technology that everyone in our churches uses or can use, etc. We’d like to find some stories about pastors or other church leaders that faced a difficult decision on a generational question.
Thanks in advance for helping the church learn from the church!
(FYI, here are our current case studies, though our new ones will look different than these.)
