How Your Church Can Thrive -- Rev. Dr. Ruth Fletcher (video conversation)

Many a book has been written about church life, especially about how to grow churches. All you need to do is buy the package from any number of consultants or mega-church pastors. What we discover once we return from the seminars or finish the books is that a one-size-fits-all vision doesn't work. Ruth Fletcher, the Regional Minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Montana, has spent quite a bit of time working with Mainline Protestant congregations, mostly in the western part of the United States (a region that is increasingly the home of the Nones), but has developed some words of wisdom about church life that can be of help to clergy and congregations. She has written a book for the series I edit with Energion Publications for the Academy of Parish Clergy. The book goes by the title: Thrive: Spiritual Habits of Transforming Congregations, (Energion Publications, 2015). 

On Tuesday evening Ruth had a conversation with publisher Henry Neufeld in which she talks about the book and what it means for congregations to thrive in a changing world. Yes, the world is changing and the church must learn to adapt. But to adapt requires that we do this in a way that is deeply rooted in Christian spirituality. So, I invite you to take a listen and perhaps pick up a book (just click on the picture above to go to Amazon).  I think you will be pleased by what you hear and read!