October 2017
No one is running around our church, setting up activities today.
Even though it’s October 31 as I write this, we’re not decorating our cars, prepping games in our classrooms, or cooking food in our kitchen.
Because this year, for the first time in many years, we’re ...
For years I bucked against the idea that I am a small church pastor.
Instead of seeing it as my calling, my heart and my passion, I treated it like it was my penalty for not having the skills to be a big church pastor.
So I consumed every church growth book and devoured all the ...
Every church has a calling.
In addition to the mission we all share – namely, the Great Commandment and Great Commission – every congregation has a specific reason they exist.
For Hillsong Church, a big part of that calling has been to write, sing and send their songs ...
The body of Christ can't afford to alienate small churches any longer.
Especially since we make up 90 percent of churches, where half of all Christians attend, worship and minister.
Imagine any other group in which that large a segment of its population regularly felt marginalized, ...
Pastoring a small church can be frustrating.
We look around at our big church counterparts and it’s easy to wonder what it would be like if our church had all those resources.
So, sometimes we play the “what if...” game.
We imagine ourselves in those churches, ...
Discovering and embracing the fact that I am a small church pastor was one of the most liberating moments of my life.
It took me years to get there, but once I did… wow! What a relief!
As I’ve outlined in The Grasshopper Myth, I went through a lot of years not willing ...
Numbers matter at our church because every number is a person.
No.
Just… No.
I don’t doubt that most pastors who say that mean it. And they truly do care for people. But numbers are not people and people are not numbers.
Most businesses are figuring this out, so why ...
What‘s the best church size?
Many church leaders might argue that, whatever your size, “just a little bigger” would be better.
Many house church attenders would propose that smaller is better.
There are followers of John Wesley’s Rule of 150 who make a good ...
There’s nothing wrong with traditional methods of doing church. As long as you want to minister to traditional church members.
Traditionalists (whatever your tradition may be) need places to worship, learn and be discipled. Too many of them have felt overlooked, even ridiculed, ...
If ninety percent of churches were big and ten percent were small, it would be reasonable to dismiss small churches as being broken.
Irrelevant.
Lazy.
But the opposite is the case. Ninety percent of churches are small, while only ten percent are medium-sized, large and mega combined. ...
Every week, pastors all over the world are asked to do something that is almost impossible. Preach a message to a group of people that includes
- Teenagers to seniors
- Men and women
- Mature disciples and not-yet-believers
- The faithful and the skeptical
- Regular attenders and first-time guests
I’ve always tried to live my life and do ministry by this rule:
Don’t try to be successful. Try to do good work.
- Not people-pleasing work, God-honoring work
- Not self-promoting work, Christ-magnifying work
- Not numbers-driven work, Spirit-led work
The one time in my ministry ...
If the size of my church was up to me, it would have been a lot bigger a long time ago.
After all, like so many of my peers in ministry, I’ve followed all the rules. Preach the Word, train disciples, reach people, remove obstacles, lead and manage it well, and the church ...
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