2018
Uh… Wow.
Every 30 years?
Yes, those are the stats, according to a church renovation expert I heard at a recent conference.
By the time his company is called in to help a church renovate their sanctuary, lobby, exterior or anything significant, it’s been three full ...
The Sunday morning pass-the-plate offering has always been a reliable predictor of the commitment level of church members.
Long before they started leaving – often before many started complaining – people would express their dissatisfaction with a church by stopping ...
Church attendance is changing.
As recently as 20 years ago, if ten people became church members (either formally or informally) the average attendance grew by eight or nine people.
Not any more.
Today, if ten people become church members, average attendance grows by five or six. ...
Sometimes it seems like the divide between big and small churches is so vast it’s almost insurmountable.
And it’s increasing, not diminishing.
Why is that happening? And why has the divide has become especially large in the last few decades?
I think it has to do with ...
A church of 50 people needs to be pastored like a church of 50 people.
You can’t act like a church of 500. Or even 100. The systems, methods and relationship dynamics simply won’t fit.
So how can a church grow, either in its size or effectiveness, if we’re only ...
Here’s a sincere question for my fellow pastors and other church leaders.
What if the members of our churches started sharing their faith, but it wasn’t in a way that brought more people to our specific church? Would we celebrate and encourage that?
If not, we may ...
It’s hard to find people who will step up and lead in the church today. Especially young people.
That’s what I keep hearing.
But I also see many churches that are the exceptions to that supposed rule. Including the amazing congregation I get to serve.
What are healthy ...
If we want to get everything we can from our church experience, we need to start by showing up in person.
That may seem obvious to most churchgoers, but there is a large and growing number of people who think that watching a service online is all the church they need.
And no, ...
The pastor’s office is a time-honored tradition whose moment has come and gone for a lot of us.
Over the last 35-plus years of ministry, I have spent thousands of hours in my office. Joyful, frustrating, heartbreaking, boring, wonderful, life-changing hours. Hours spent ...
Pastors fall into one of three groups when it comes to money.
- Pastors who hate talking about money at all
- Pastors who talk about money obsessively
- Pastors who have discovered a biblical balance
Most pastors I’ve met, maybe two out of three, are in the first group. We want ...
When it comes to the issue of Money And The Small Church, (or money and big churches, money and family finances, money and business, etc.) there is one principle that stands high above all the others.
It’s so basic, I almost feel silly having to write it. But it is Job ...
Many people have a love/hate relationship with money.
Including me.
I don’t like thinking about it, talking about it, teaching on it or worrying about it.
And I really don’t like asking for it. (No, this article isn’t me asking for it.)
I don’t like what ...
When a building is being repaired or erected, scaffolding is the temporary structure that is built around or inside it to give workers access to the construction site. But when the building is completed, the scaffolding is removed.
Every church program, building, denomination ...
There’s a lot of conversation going on about megachurches.
In my context of ministry to small churches, much of the conversation surrounds this question. Are megachurches actually reaching new people for Jesus, or are believers gathering into ever-larger groups, leaving ...
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about the impending demise of the megachurch.
But is the era of the megachurch really drawing to a close?
I have four answers to that question:
- Yes
- No
- I hope so
- I hope not
Let’s look at these four contradictory responses one at ...
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