Innovative Ministry
Do you want your church to experience a turnaround? If so, why?
There are a lot of good reasons. Among them, you might want to see your church move from:
- Unhealthy to healthy
- Inward-obsessed to outward-focused
- Stuck in the past to excited about the future
- Unloving to loving
- Uninviting to inviting
What models and methods are we clinging to that make the basic functions of the church harder than they should be?
Serving Jesus isn’t supposed to be easy. Christ told us we had to take up our cross daily. But Jesus made the gospel as accessible as possible. Too easy, according ...
What kind of culture does your church have?
For many years, the denominational tag told people everything they needed to know before they walked in the door. And not just theologically. Even the style of clothing and music were similar throughout each denomination.
In recent years, ...
Just when you think you’re ahead of the curve, the curve moves. Especially if you’re a small church pastor.
My parents sent me to college with a Smith Corona typewriter in 1978. It was electric and portable. I was ahead of the curve.
Then one day, I saw a crowd gathering ...
Churches get stuck sometimes.
If you’re a pastor, you’ve known seasons when it’s hard to get church members to do great things for Jesus.
Good things.
Okay — anything.
During our church’s years of being stuck, I longed for the day when launching a new ...
It’s been four years since I've had writer's block.
No, that’s not right. I still get writer’s block.
It’s been four years since writer’s block has stopped me from writing.
Yes, that’s more like it.
Writer’s block has always been ...
The church I pastor has reached our capacity. Not our seating capacity. Our ministry capacity.
We can't do any more ministry than we are currently doing. Unless we change the way we do it.
Last Saturday I spent the day with our church's key leaders and we reached one simple ...
Our church turned a corner this year.
About 15 months ago ago, we felt it. Something wasn’t quite right.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my youth pastor verbalized it.
“Is it me, or is something off lately?” he wondered.
“It’s not just you,” ...
Is it possible for a church to rely too heavily on technical excellence?
That was the crux of a recent conversation I had with an old friend.
“I left my small church because the worship, programs and preaching weren’t always great,” she told me. “But I ...
Have you ever been to a vibrant church and wondered ‘what do they have that we don’t have?’
It may seem like 90 percent of what they’re doing is what your church is doing. But they’re vibrant, healthy and alive, while the church you’re from ...