Magazine and Online Articles

Church Websites and Other Congregational Communications

Websites that Work: Questions and Answers with Lynne Baab Congregations, Summer 2009
Churches need websites if they want to be welcoming to potential visitors...

A New Place Candour, a publication of the Presbyterian Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, May 2009
Communication has always mattered to Christians. But what are the implications for the church of all the new technologies?

Visual Communication for Congregations Building Church Leaders Blog (a publication of Christianity Today), Fall 2008
Movies, television, machines that print color pictures, and computers—all powered by electricity—have shaped the way we communicate...

Giving Communication the Attention It Deserves Building Church Leaders Blog (a publication of Christianity Today), Aug 2008
Most of the biggest technological changes of the past two decades involved communication...

Communication Congregational Values Building Church Leaders Blog (a publication of Christianity Today), February 2008
How websites "speak" beyond the words they use...

Our New Front Door Congregations, Spring 2008
How congregational Web sites communicate church values…

Spiritual Disciplines

Small Habits, Big Benefits Discipleship Journal, Fall 2008
Everyday practices help us draw near to God in the routine places of daily life…

I’m Excited About Spiritual Disciplines Spanz: Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, June 2008
In this postmodern, post-Christendom world, we’re seeing a flowering of interest in Christian spiritual disciplines, particularly among younger followers of Christ…

Spiritual Disciplines for People in Ministry Christianity Today blog, "Building Church Leaders," Spring 2008
Why it’s so important to nurture spiritual disciplines that are unconnected to “church work”…

Fasting

Feeling deprived? Lenten fast can refocus consumer mindset The United Methodist Reporter Interactive
While praying for a friend in her car, Lynne Baab decided to "fast" from the music she usually listens to when driving. Two things happened: She began to see another way to pray for her friend's difficulties, and she noticed that her car was making a funny noise...

Gifts of Freedom: The Sabbath and Fasting Conversations, Fall/Winter 2007
Almost every year for ten years I stayed for a few days at a Benedictine monastery for women. During an early visit, one of the sisters told me how special Sundays are at the monastery...

Fasting Today Unpublished
Anyone can fast. In the past two years I’ve interviewed dozens of people who fast, and I’ve heard an amazing diversity of stories. In our time, followers of Jesus fast from food in a variety of ways, just as people of faith have done for centuries..

Sabbath

A Day Off From God Stuff? Leadership Journal, Spring 2007
Some pastors observe sabbath well. Their day away from work is markedly different from the other six, and there is something special and holy about what they do—and don’t do—on that day. For others, the sabbath feels like another work day...

Gifts of Freedom: The Sabbath and Fasting Conversations, Fall/Winter 2007
Almost every year for ten years I stayed for a few days at a Benedictine monastery for women. During an early visit, one of the sisters told me how special Sundays are at the monastery...

A Day Without a ‘Do’ List Discipleship Journal, July/Aug 2005
Busy, exhausted, empty... Our frantic activity and continual acquisition of possessions do not fill the hollow spaces in our inner beings. We need the sabbath now more than ever...

The Gift of Rest Today's Christian Woman, Sept 2005
“I’d like to observe the sabbath in our family,” the young woman said. “I’ve been reading books about it, talking with my husband and kids, and we’re going to start soon”...

Sabbath-Keeping—It's OK to Start Small Presbyterians Today, July/Aug 2005
The young woman smiled. “You mean we can start small? We don’t have to do it perfectly from the beginning?” We were talking about the sabbath...

The Gift of the Sabbath "The Spirit," newsletter of Seattle Presbytery, Jan 2005
Sabbath keeping is God’s gift. But, as with any gift, it must be received, opened and used...

Stopping: The Gift of the Sabbath Congregations, Summer 2003
...More and more people of all ages are finding joy and fruitfulness in observing a sabbath...

Burnout

Is Burnout Inevitable? The Spirit, newsletter of Seattle Presbytery, Nov 2003
About two years ago I interviewed several dozen people...Every single Christian I interviewed had at least one burnout story for me [but] I was quite surprised to hear about the absence of burnout among volunteers in synagogues, and that observation sent me down a long path of thought and analysis.

Beating Burnout by Building Teams Congregations, Fall 2003
For Beth and Steve, teaching Sunday School became a place where they could serve God together and grow in friendship with another couple and the singles who were on the team...Burnout was the furthest thing from their experience.