May 2017
Some things become better when they become scalable.
Some don’t.
Some have mixed results.
This is true for churches.
The Positives And Negatives Of Scalability
For instance, the car I drive is cheaper, safer and more fuel-efficient because the assembly line made automobile ...
Last week’s blog post, Why Some Great Churches Never Impact Their Community, got a lot of feedback on Facebook, Twitter and email.
Several readers were concerned that I had been harder on the church than I needed to be. Their primary concerns were:
1. I made a snap judgment ...
Several years ago I had the privilege of being in a great church service on a trip away from home.
The worship was dynamic, the people were friendly, the message was biblical and engaging, the sense of the presence of God was genuine.
As I drove away, I thought, “What a ...
The days of finding or creating a discipleship program, then using it for years, is over. Especially in a small church.
Our church created and implemented a great a discipleship class last year. In our church of 180 (average Sunday attendance) more than 60 adults took the class ...
I like the idea of small churches. But if they’re so great, why do I see so many more unhealthy small churches than unhealthy big churches?
A small church pastor asked me that question recently. Not from cynicism or unkindness. It was out of genuine concern for a reality ...
For the first time in American history we have a generation without Christian parents or grandparents.
Many of the people – especially the youth – who give their lives to Jesus in the church I pastor were never taught Bible stories, prayed at meals or bedtime, or ...
Too many small church pastors are doing most, maybe all, of their ministry alone.
They wonder if anyone outside the church even knows or cares that they exist.
That isolation can become toxic. And it can start to bleed out into their congregations, confirming the worst stereotypes ...
Small church pastors want to hear and use the best ideas, advice, wisdom and counsel we can find.
So we look for it everywhere. From books, blogs, podcasts, conferences, mentors and more.
But many of my fellow small church pastors have stopped looking and asking for help.
It’s ...
What do you do when you have a message that doesn’t quite fit within the norm?
How do you get anyone to take you seriously? Especially in this interconnected world with so many voices yelling at us?
I’ve been asked those questions a few times lately about this blog, ...
When someone says a restaurant serves the best chicken in town, it’s never about the chicken.
Every properly-cooked chicken tastes the same.
What’s different is the flavoring.
It’s the same with churches.
So many of the arguments we have about the right way to ...
There's more than one way for churches to grow.
But over the last forty years or so we've been given one model of church growth almost exclusively. Get more people in the building.
That model is so prevalent that when I dare to suggest that many small churches are healthy ...
Pastoring a small church is not for the faint of heart.
It involves ministering to and with people at every level of their lives. Spiritual, social, financial, emotional and more. All with extremely limited resources at every level, including time, staffing, facility, finances ...
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