We’re spending this week at Outlaw Ranch Lutheran Camp, located in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. I’ve been fortunate that over the years I’ve been invited to teach at a number of our summer church camps and always look forward to spending time with family and with friends old and new learning about and worshiping God in the beauty of God’s creation. In fact, let me say that a little more forcefully. I don’t just look forward to this time, I long for it, as I’ve come to have a tremendous appreciation for what our summer camps do for our youth and families and, indeed, for the whole church. The Lutheran Church of which...

It seems like the relative demise of denominations is in the air. Several significant blog posts and articles have been published recently that move forward the argument I made a few weeks ago that denominations may be on the way out, though in somewhat different directions. Before engaging those, though, I want to clarify one thing: I’m not in any sense anti-denominational. That is, I still think denominations do a lot of great work, particularly when it comes to organizing both the needs and strengths of their thousands of congregations. Which means that when it comes to everything from training leaders for the church to organizing...

I know this seems like a heretical question, especially for those of us who teach confirmation but also, I suspect, for any of us who went through it. It is, after all, perhaps the most significant religious right of passage in mainline Christianity. But that’s precisely what I want to question: confirmation as a rite of passage. As ample research has shown, confirmation functioned something like graduation for previous generations of Protestant mainline Christians. It was the end of required attendance, and when our kids left our churches in droves we didn’t worry too much about it because we could count on them returning once they’d...

A quick, but important caveat: I teach at a denominational seminary, was ordained into and serve in a denomination, and not only take seriously, but take pride in, my Lutheran identity and heritage. Whether that makes you want to take more seriously or dismiss altogether my feelings about denominations is, of course, for you to decide. With that in mind, here are my five chief reasons I not only think the day of denominations has passed but also can’t seem to find it in me to shed many tears about it. 1) Denominations are confusing in a post-Christian world and often an impediment to mission. When the larger culture was nominally...

When I read an article by Seth Godin on the woes of book publishers recently, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between the situation he describes and the challenges facing our congregations. His summary statement of the problem is striking: the challenge the big book publishers are facing is that a perfect industry is being replaced by one filled with chaos and opportunity. What does he mean by “perfect”? Simply that book publishers – and the stores that depended on them – enjoyed a monopoly on the means of producing and selling books. As he writes, Limited shelf space plus limited competitors plus...