AN IDEA ABOUT HOW TO ENGAGE OUR MISSING CHURCH MEMBERS

 

I get a fair amount of positive feedback from my homilies, and for that I am grateful, because I do spend a lot of time working on them. However, as I was talking to a Baptist friend the other day, he helped me realize something that I was not focusing on enough! He told me that his pastor does an excellent job on his homilies, but the people who most need to hear it are not there! His church, like ours, has seen a steep decline in church attendance especially since COVID.

When I left the Cathedral, I missed my pulpit so much that I volunteered to publish a column every week in The Record. I called it An Encouraging Word. After fifteen years of writing that column each week, I stopped and decided to start a blog also called An Encouraging Word.

Even though my preaching is deliberately based on a Isaiah 50:4 quote, "The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to answer the weary with a word that will awaken them," I realize that I may still be opening myself up to criticism and condemnation. However, I try my best to accept any criticism with humility and courage. My blog posts are deliberately called An Encouraging Word inspired by another passage from Isaiah 42:3. "A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish." In other words, I try to look for goodness to affirm, not sins to condemn. God knows there is more than enough of that from some clergy these days!

Following my Baptist friend's advice about "those who are not there" to hear my homilies, I offer blog postings every other day for the people listed below. On my blog, you will find homilies, reflections, humorous cartoons, prayers, updates on my mission projects, photos and various other useful materials.

TO ACCESS MY AN ENCOURAGING WORD BLOG GO TO:

fatherknott.com 

For those who don't go to church.

For those who have gotten out the habit of going to church.

For those who don't want to go to church.

For those who have never been to church.

For those who can't go to church. 

For those who go all the time to church.

"Let us consider how to spur one another to love and good works. Do not neglect to attend your assemblies, as some do, but rather encourage one another."

Hebrews 10:24-25