Megachurches are predominantly white, suburban, conservative congregations led by baby-boomer pastors. That is what an infographic about floating around the web lately has revealed. It’s based on research compiled by Forbes, The Christian Post, and Leadership Network.

For the most part the stats look very positive for mega and gigachurches (yes, that is a term now being used widely). These massive congregations, unlike many other churches, are still growing. They’re expanding staff, seeing increasing budgets, and have an optimistic outlook.

But buried in the positive stats about megachurches may be signs of challenges ahead. Could a bubble be forming that when it finally bursts will require the mega-model to be reengineered? Are we seeing the maturation of the megachurch movement into a sustainable and long-term model for…

Did the modern youth ministry movement create the Emerging Church? That’s the question Tony Jones addresses in a recent blog post. While presenting a paper at an academic conference, Jones fielded questions from professors of youth ministry primarily from evangelical colleges and seminaries.

Jones said to them, “You all have strong feelings about the emerging church movement, most of them negative.  Well, you are directly responsible for the emerging church movement.”

He went on to describe how contemporary youth ministry shuns the “accoutrements of power (vestments, titles, special roles and rites). Instead, youth are encouraged to engage all of the practices of the community equally.” In other words, the rejection of structural authority and the focus on a flat structure of relational authority which has marked the…

Is social justice an essential part of the gospel? The question has been raging for decades, and in some circles the matter was settled long ago. But a new generation of evangelicals with a strong inclination toward social engagement is reviving the debate. But I’m increasingly convinced that we are framing the debate incorrectly, and missing the point as a result.

The latest example came last week when Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (my alma mater) hosted Jim Wallis and Al Mohler to debate the role of justice in the mission of the gospel. Wallis, the president and CEO of Sojourners, affirmed the centrality of social justice in the gospel, while Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said it was an implication of the gospel but not…

Our local PBS station broadcasts a show on faith and religion every Sunday. 30 Good Minutes has been on the air in one form or another since 1956, and many influential and thoughtful faith leaders from around the world have been featured on the program. This Sunday it’s my turn. I was invited by my friends Eboo Patel and Dan Pawlus on the program to talk about evangelicals engaged in interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

Watch the full 15 minute interview online, or this Sunday at 5pm on channel 11 in Chicago. Check out more about the history of 30 Good Minutes on the program’s website, and watch past interviews on their YouTube Channel.

A few weeks ago I had lunch with Darren Whitehead from Willow Creek. Darren is a great bloke (I can say that because he’s an Aussie), and we talked candidly about our experiences in the church, in leadership, and the way we see church adapting to the shifting culture. Toward the end of our lunch he asked me if I’d ever considering working on a church staff again. “I’ve learned never to say never,” I replied, “but it would have to be a very different kind of church.”

“Like what?” he asked. I rattled off some half-baked answer, but his question has lingered in my mind. What kind of church would I want to help lead?

As I’ve ruminated on that question, I’ve gone back and read a…

For years I’ve been trying to help people see that popular consumer culture is a form of religion. It offers us a sense of value, identity, and context that traditional religions once provided. Similarly, pop culture has sacred symbols. How do I know this? Because when one of these symbols is altered the faithful will rise to protest the act of irreverence.

The Coca-Cola Company learned this lesson in 1985 when they released New Coke. And earlier this year when Gap changed their logo, hoards of angry white females rioted via social media. Gap relented and the retail deity’s image was restored.

The latest victim of pop-culture blasphemy: Superman. Photographs have leaked from the production of Warner Brothers’ new film Man of Steel showing actor Henry Cavill wearing…

Two years ago I was invited to speak at the first STORY conference held at the Paramount Theater in Aurora, Illinois. Ben Arment, the mind behind the event, moved STORY to downtown Chicago last year. And this year Ben has given me the opportunity to be a part of the gathering again. I’ll be speaking briefly on Friday, September 16. STORY is intended to be a conference for the “creative class” within the church. In advance of the event, I was interviewed by Jeff Goins about imagination, storytelling, and creativity. Check out the interview below, and visit Jeff’s blog to read more about STORY, how you can be a part, and who else will be at the event.

What is your best personal definition of…

Back in March I was in New York City doing some scouting work for This Is Our City, a new project Andy Crouch is leading for Christianity Today. While in town I stopped by to visit with Gabe Lyons and the crew behind Q. In our conversation Gabe asked me about my new book, With. It was still about six months away from being released, but I shared the main concept of the book with him. Gabe responded by saying he’d love for me to share those ideas at the Q Gathering. We had just finished talking about the 2012 Q Gathering in Washington D.C., so I told Gabe I’d be happy to speak at the conference. “No,” he said, “I want you to share this in…

“Slug Bug!” WHACK!

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about cars and design on this blog, but an article about the redesigned 2012 VW Beetle caught my attention yesterday. Paul A. Eisenstein shares a brief history of the iconic automobile originally designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the years before WWII. As Germany sought to rebuilt its industrial base following the war, the little Beetle became an affordable, utilitarian workhorse for the masses.

Eventually the Beetle’s appeal became global and sold over 23 million units. Although the last original Beetle was sold in the United States in 1979, the car remained in production in Latin America until 2003.

In the 1990s American designer J Mays developed a modern re-interpretation of Porsche’s original Beetle design. The car entered…

Today I visited Ground Zero for the first time. Despite the ongoing construction of the Freedom Tower and memorial, it’s hard to absorb that 10 years ago it was a scene of chaos and carnage. This afternoon, like September 11, 2001, was a clear and warm day. I walked though the canyons of Lower Manhattan trying to imagine what it would have been like on that history-changing morning. I couldn’t.

I hadn’t planned to visit Ground Zero on my quick trip to New York. But yesterday I got an invitation from Greg Wheatley at Moody Radio to be part of a panel discussion on his program, Inside Look. The special episode will air around the anniversary of 9/11, and will focus on the events of that day…