Author: Scott Gress

The church throughout north America is plateaued and even declining as the latest LCMS periodical The Lutheran Witness 2017 The State of the Church – points out. The trends are not good. No wonder that there is another trend throughout

Recently there have been some situations in our household where we have had to employ the advice and services of others. Nothing serious, but contacts and encounters with lawyers, service people for various things around the house, for the cars, plus

IF you have the attitude that “we can do it and you can help.” The “we” being the church staff and the “you” being the church members. This means that the staff run the programming and significant ministry and the

Did you go to freshman orientation? New job orientation? There are a lot of places and jobs and associations which require some kind of orientation. But what kind of orientation do we do in the church? New member catechism classes.

Robert D. Putnam in his influential study, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, writes that only in high-trust environments can leaders recruit the eager support they need to achieve worthy goals. So how much do you trust

Most of the time that expression has to do with cleaning the house and opening the windows to let in some fresh spring air. But for our purposes this refers to something that we as leaders can almost be blind

Recently I was watching an interview of a someone I used to admire. He was a two time gold medalist in the pole vault and minister Bob Richards. Back when I was a pole vaulter and a Christian myself, he

The first step is admitting you have a problem. That kind of sounds like some kind of addiction anonymous twelve step program. Well, perhaps it is. If your immediate reaction to the above is, “I’m fine.” Then keep reading because