2017
No one will ever make a list of the best small churches in the world.
And they shouldn’t.
After all, a great urban small church looks very different from a great rural one. Same with a great Baptist and Methodist church. Or a great small church in Japan or Costa Rica.
Even ...
My pastor is so hard to please!
I’ve had a lot of conversations with church staff members and volunteers. Their most commonly repeated frustration usually goes like this:
“Nothing makes my pastor happy! Last week we had the best youth night ever. The kids worshiped ...
No one can truly pastor 1,000 people. Or 500.
Even 200 is stretching yourself too thin. That’s why the so-called 200 barrier is such a challenge.
So, if you want to lead a large church, at some point you’ll have to give up most of what it means to be a pastor. Maybe ...
It's coming!
Yesterday, I sent the manuscript for my next book into the publisher.
After decades of living it, years of teaching it, and months of writing it, “Small Church Essentials” is in the capable hands of the great editors at Moody Press.
Here are some details.
The church needs to be more digital. For small churches especially, the digital world can level the playing field, giving us a broader reach and wider ministry impact.
As I wrote in The Gatekeepers are Gone: What’s Holding Your Ministry Back?, we need more churches taking ...
Is the term “Successful Small Church” an oxymoron?
You know, like
- Jumbo shrimp
- Deafening silence
- Awfully good
- Genuine imitation
- Icy hot
- Open secret
- Living dead
- Clean dirt
- Alone together
Or, more sarcastically,
- Microsoft Works
- Smart bombs
- Educational television
When I first considered ...
Small churches can’t do everything. But we can do a lot more than we may think.
The challenge is to use our limited resources in the best possible way, for maximum ministry impact.
Over the years, our small church has learned a few principles that help us do just that.
Pastors face a lot of pressure to perform. Some of it, admittedly, is self-imposed.
One of the main places this pressure is felt is in the demand to research, write and deliver a great sermon every week.
In fact, several times in the last few months, I’ve read blog posts ...
Houston is devastated. But, even as the flood waters recede, the crisis is far from over. The people of Houston need our help, prayers and material assistance.
So, before I get to the subject of this post, here’s a link to the best relief organization I know. Convoy of ...
How did the church of Jesus grow for the first 1900+ years of its existence without any megachurches around?
That’s how long it took for the first megachurches to appear on the landscape. They’re the new kid on the church block. Until the middle of the 20th century, ...
One of the foundational beliefs of the church growth movement is that every church should desire to grow. And if you don’t want your church to grow, there’s something wrong. Probably something wrong with you.
So let me get right to it and answer the question in today’s ...
Church turnarounds are hard, but so rewarding.
When a church that was sick and dying goes through a revitalization that puts them back on the path of effective mission, it’s something we ought to celebrate and learn from.
And it can act as a huge encouragement to other churches ...
Too many pastors suffer from PCM. Punch-the-clock mentality. And if you don't, you may be struggling to work with church leaders who do.
PCM usually develops in people who have spent their entire working lives in jobs where they get paid hourly. Every work day they punch ...
Has your church ever tried to add a second weekend worship service, only to have it flame out? This was the question that was asked on a small church pastors’ discussion board recently.
Several of the responses were, understandably, along these two lines:
- “That’s a ‘problem’ I’d love to have.”
Evil is not a theory.
It’s not a concept created by angry, red-face preachers trying to stop people from having a good time.
Evil is what flies airplanes into buildings and drives an automobile into pedestrians.
But evil doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
No one wakes up one ...
Read More from Karl
