My post the other day comparing the competitive market of U.S. sports and the current situation of the Church drew a number of helpful responses. But also some misunderstanding. My fault, I think, as words like “competition” can be highly charged among church folk. So I thought I would clarify just what I meant a bit and invite a continued conversation. Let me start, though, by saying what I didn’t mean. I don’t mean that congregations should try to compete with sports…or theater or television or whatever. I’m not calling for entertainment evangelism or employing flashy gimmicks of any kind. In fact, I was not inviting...

Having served for more than a decade as Dean of Duke Divinity School, L. Gregory Jones is now a senior strategist and professor of theology there. His work is reliably insightful, challenging, and innovative. More than that – and those who know theologians will understand why I want to underscore this next point 🙂 – his work is also regularly and eminently practical. He’s written another important article posted at Duke’s Faith and Leadership website called “Performance as Leadership Preparation.” I couldn’t find a place to comment on the site, so I’ll both commend his article to you as well as respond to it here. In his...