Jason Locke's Blog

On October 8, 2023, we held our last worship service in our home of 59 years. We're moving on to a temporary location while we wait for God to reveal where our more permanent home will be. It's been a journey for which there is no solid road map, but we feel blessed by what's happening. We formed a giant circle for the final song at our longtime, northeast Fresno home. In late January, our elders announced a shock decision. We would be selling our church building and moving on. Among the elders, it was an uncontentious and unambiguous decision. They 100% believed it was in the church's best interest to put our property on the market and find a new home. Many congregations have hard choices to make about aging properties that are oversized for today's churches. Selling seemed the most desirable option to our board in our circumstances. I wrote about that decision back in January. You can read about it here . I had an inside seat to their decision-making process. As a

Most North American churches are in crisis mode. Decline. Division. Lack of direction. Even closure. These are the realities you likely know all too well. It’s old news. In response to these negative trends, I typically hear one of two lines of thought. The first just involves doing what churches already do, only better. Welcome people more warmly. Lead better worship. Be more transparent. Preach more effectively. Make your facilities more inviting. Serve nicer coffee. Have snazzier kids’ classes. Use social media more successfully. The list goes on and on. Standing-room only crowd for our workshop at the 2023 Harbor Lectures This set of strategies stems from the reality that most church leaders have a church-shaped mission. In other words, they know how to do one thing: Sunday morning worship. And since that is what churches do, that must be the tool to turn things around. The mission must fit church as they know it. The second line of thought is less optimistic. It embraces dec

To read my latest article on the Mosaic ministry site at Abilene Christian University, please click below: https://www.mosaicsite.org/main/2023/4/11/i-survived-the-church-renewal-movements-re-missioning-is-what-we-need-now

To read my latest article on the Mosaic site, please click the link below: https://www.mosaicsite.org/main/2023/2/7/the-church-of-scotland-is-changing-fast-can-the-churches-of-christ-follow-suit  

On Sunday, January 22, 2023, the College Church of Christ elders hosted a meeting for church members. During this meeting, they announced their unanimous decision to sell the church’s existing property and relocate to a more appropriately sized property elsewhere in the Fresno/Clovis area. Each elder and minister shared their own words of affirmation about this decision. This move is not taken lightly and no doubt evokes sadness in many folks. Still, the church leaders believe this is a crucial, positive step. Despite the many memories that fill this campus, the church's current needs are no longer a match for this property. Selling and relocating will help the College Church more fully live into its mission and vision for the future. A brief bit of context may be helpful. In early December, the elders asked church members for ideas about what to do with the building and property. It was acknowledged that the College Church sits on an expansive 9-acre property with nearly 45,000

Here are five books I read & appreciated in 2022. Not ranked in any particular order: Book #5, Church for Every Context by Michael Moynagh If you’re familiar with any of my recent blog posts about my sabbatical partly spent in the UK, then this book by Mike Moynagh explains a big piece of my research before our trip. I also got to visit with the author this summer in Oxford. Mike is incredibly pragmatic, knowledgeable and humble. This is one of the best books on “doing church” I’ve ever read. Actually, I can’t think of a better one. I honestly don’t understand why this book isn’t being universally used in seminaries to train pastors and church leaders. It’s that good. Why so overlooked? Well, it’s got the weight of a doorstop. And it doesn’t seem as widely available in the US as it is in the UK. So perhaps those are obstacles. But why is this book so important, in my opinion? First, it’s written through the lens of mission. Mike grew up in East Africa, the son of missionaries. Like