2015

Bringing Innovative Strategies to an Established Small Church
Three starter principles to help an existing church move from stuck and dying to healthy and innovative.
Bringing Innovative Strategies to an Established Small Church

Why bother trying to resurrect an old, dying church?

I’ve heard that question a lot.

There was a time when it seemed like every pastor I went to Bible college with was following church growth principles and starting new churches. In a few years they were buying ...

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Why 'Step Aside So the Church Can Find a Pastor to Grow It' Is a Bad Idea
Six reasons most small church pastors should stay, even if the numbers are static.
Why 'Step Aside So the Church Can Find a Pastor to Grow It' Is a Bad Idea
Image: Glenn G | Flickr

There are broken churches in the world. Broken churches with failing pastors.

Most of those churches are small. Thankfully. But that’s just because 90 percent of all churches in the world are small.

So yes, there are good reasons for failing pastors to leave failing churches. ...

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For Pastors: Nine Reasons to Stop Telling Everyone They're Awesome
We don't need churches filled with awesome people. We need churches that help broken, sinful people find an awesome God.
For Pastors: Nine Reasons to Stop Telling Everyone They're Awesome

AWESOME /ˈôsəm/ (Adjective) Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.

I’ve had it with people trying to tell me how awesome I am. Especially fellow pastors.

We should know better.

I’m not sure exactly when ...

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Small Church Ministry
Delegating Tasks In the Small Church: Two Options and Six Lessons
When there's little help available, we can either do fewer activities or train more disciples. Here are six ways I learned to do both.
Delegating Tasks In the Small Church: Two Options and Six Lessons

“Delegate, pastor. Delegate.”

I’ve heard that wise advice hundreds of times. Literally hundreds.

During the first few years pastoring my current church, one of my deacons, named Ron Cook, said it to me constantly. Whenever he caught me doing something ...

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Church Leadership
Five Simple Steps to Mentor New Believers (Without Overworking the Pastor)
Small churches can use our personal touch to help new believers grow in the way that suits them best.
Five Simple Steps to Mentor New Believers (Without Overworking the Pastor)

My church doesn’t use a discipleship curriculum.

Instead, as I wrote about in my previous two posts, we mentor people.

Those posts ...

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Church Leadership
Mentoring Is Better than Curriculum: Seven Steps to Better Discipleship
How to implement Jethro's plan and Jesus' process to turn believers into disciples. Whatever size your church is.
Mentoring Is Better than Curriculum: Seven Steps to Better Discipleship

Pastoring a small church is not for the timid.

Even the tools that are supposed to help us can leave us feeling more discouraged.

Discipleship curricuum, for instance. Whether it's designed for kids, youth or adults, most of it seems to target bigger churches. Small ...

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Church Leadership
Serious About Discipleship? Mentoring Is Better Than Curriculum
Small churches have a serious advantage when it comes to discipleship. If we’ll use the right tools.
Serious About Discipleship? Mentoring Is Better Than Curriculum

“What discipleship curriculum do you recommend for small churches?”

I get asked that question a lot. And my answer almost always disappoints the questioner.

We don’t use a discipleship curriculum in our church.

I’ll get to why – and what ...

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Christian Unity
Don’t Like How Your Church Is Changing? This Is For You
My tribute to those who feel left behind when you don’t recognize your own church anymore.
Don’t Like How Your Church Is Changing? This Is For You
Image: m.a.r.c | Flickr

If you’re a long-time, faithful church member who doesn’t like the way your church is changing, I have one thing to say to you.

Thank you.

For what? We’ll get to that soon. But first I want to tell you a short story.

Trying to Keep Up

“What ...

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Innovative Ministry
Start in the Shallow End: How to Make Changes Without Sinking Your Church
How to make those first much-needed changes as pain-free as possible.
Start in the Shallow End: How to Make Changes Without Sinking Your Church

Change is hard.

Don’t make it harder than it has to be.

If I could only give one piece of advice to pastors who are struggling to turn a dying, unhealthy, static church into a fresh, healthy, innovative one, this would be it:

Do the easy parts first.

It’s ...

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Adapt Or Die: 6 Steps to Becoming an Innovative Church
How to foster an atmosphere where new ideas are celebrated and the gospel is honored.
Adapt Or Die: 6 Steps to Becoming an Innovative Church

Adapt or die.

That's especially true in small churches.

The good news is, because of our size, small churches have the ability to adapt more quickly than our larger counterparts. Like steering a speedboat instead of an ocean liner.

Sadly though, that’s not ...

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Church & Culture
When Hollywood Goes to Church: 18 Stereotypes
A lighthearted look at what we've all learned about church and the ministry from TV and movies.
When Hollywood Goes to Church: 18 Stereotypes

Pastors are used to being misunderstood. It goes with the job description.

But what if the only "facts" we knew about churches and pastors were what we saw on TV and the movies?

Ugh.

Hollywood has been telling stories that include churches and pastors for ...

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How to Tell If a Small Church Is Strategic or Stuck
5 types of strategically small churches, and 4 types of stuck churches. Which one are you?
How to Tell If a Small Church Is Strategic or Stuck

Just because a church is small doesn’t mean it is stuck.

But the truth is, many small churches are stuck.

If small churches want to keep being vital elements in Jesus' Great Commission strategy, we need to be able to tell the difference between a strategic small church ...

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Church Growth
11 Types of Healthy Churches That Often Stay Small
No church should settle or stay stuck. But not every healthy church gets bigger.
11 Types of Healthy Churches That Often Stay Small

“If a church stays small, they must be doing something wrong. It can’t possibly be healthy.”

This has been an underlying assumption of many in the church growth movement. (Although it’s usually more subtly stated than that.) But, as with any assumption, ...

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Church Leadership
Never Settle for a Small Church (No Matter How Big It Is)
When our dreams for our church end at our church doors, we're dreaming too small.
Never Settle for a Small Church (No Matter How Big It Is)

Many people think I’m settling for less when I talk about the value of small churches. Yes, they've actually said that to me.

I appreciate their concern. But they don’t need to worry. I’m not settling for less.

I would be settling for less if my entire goal ...

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The Surprising, Guilt-Free Reason 80% of Churches Don't Break the 200 Barrier
Big churches and small churches are different. But it’s not a difference of quality, theology or willingness.
The Surprising, Guilt-Free Reason 80% of Churches Don't Break the 200 Barrier

Breaking through the 200 barrier.

Sometimes it feels like that's the only pastoring principle anyone has talked about for the past 30 years.

In case you haven’t heard of it, the 200 barrier is the invisible ceiling a church must break through if it doesn’t ...

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