2019
There’s been a lot written about productivity lately.
And I’m grateful for it.
Whenever I can, I want to minimize distractions, get right to the task at hand and arrive at the end of the day feeling like I did what I set out to do – maybe even more. If an efficiency ...
Churches of all sizes have something to offer.
I know, I say that a lot.
I’ve even been told I need to be less accommodating to big churches. But it’s not an accommodation, it’s a reality.
Bigger churches do great things that small churches can’t do, and ...
By far, the most prevalent expression of the church throughout history is the small congregation.
More people have worshipped Jesus, been discipled, and reached out to others through the ministry of small churches than through any other tradition, method, format or denomination. ...
There are some pastors whose names are known by thousands, even millions of people.
They have the type of ministry in which their successes are obvious.
But that’s not the case with most pastors.
The typical pastor does ministry without much notice or name recognition.
Today ...
Everybody has an opinion.
And everyone is entitled to one.
But not every opinion is of equal value. Including mine.
With the advent of social media, we can state our opinion on platforms that can potentially be seen by thousands of people. Because of this, our opinion feels like ...
Last week, Aaron Earls wrote a very helpful article entitled The Church Growth Gap: The Big Get Bigger While the Small Get Smaller. In it, he outlined the results of a recent survey taken by LifeWay Research.
There’s a lot of data in the survey and the article, much of ...
As pastors, we typically spend our time in three overlapping areas of ministry: communication, administration and relationships.
But our time is always limited, so on those weeks when time gets tighter, which of the three should we spend extra time on, and which of the three ...
If you are leading a healthy and effective house church, you may face some criticism for not getting bigger. But most people will start with the assumption that your size is appropriate for your calling.
If you are leading a healthy and effective big church, you may face some ...
There is a crisis in the church.
People are leaving.
And we want them to come back.
But before we ask how to get them back, we need to ask why they’re leaving in the first place.
It’s not because our churches aren’t big enough, cool enough, relevant enough, or ...
There seems to be an absence of young people stepping up to take leadership roles in the church.
I say “seems to be…” because that’s what I keep hearing from so many of my contemporaries in ministry.
“It’s hard to find younger leaders!” ...
Small congregations are the backbone of the church.
Over 90 percent of churches are under 200 people. As many as half of all Christians attend a small congregation.
But if you take a look at the dominant teaching about church leadership, you might think that all those churches ...
Small churches are not better than big churches. Big churches aren’t better than small ones.
The arguments we have about size are silly, dangerous and missing the point.
Everyone has something unique to contribute.
As for small churches, here are some of the most undeniable, ...
Breaking the 200 barrier.
I wonder if any subject has received more attention in the last generation of church leadership training.
In some ways, it makes sense to spend so much time talking about it. After all, there is a fundamental shift that must take place when a church reaches ...
One year ago this month, I stopped being the lead pastor of our church.
Not because I was done, but because it was the right time.
Truth be told, I still want to be the lead pastor. At the age of 59, (58 when we made the transition) I’m not too old. I still have the passion, ...
Recently I heard a pastor say two words that hit me like a punch to the gut.
I was watching him in a short online video teaching clip, when he referenced an article he’d read on a blog a couple years ago.
Before talking about the content of the article, he off-handedly quipped, ...