God doesn’t work on our calendar. He created days, weeks, months, seasons and years. Those are real things. We designed minutes, hours, decades and New Year’s Day on January 1. Those are made up things. That’s why I don’t trust New Year’s resolutions or decade-long church plans. What are the odds that God’s plans for […]
Why I Don’t Trust New Year’s Resolutions or 10-Year Plans Read More »
We all know small group ministry is a must for a healthy church, right? But what if we’re wrong? What if small groups aren’t right for a lot of churches? I’ve struggled for decades (wow… decades! I didn’t realize that until I wrote it…) trying to do healthy small group ministry in my church, with
4 Signs Your Church Should Stop Doing Small Group Ministry Read More »
Preacher’s Block is a challenge during the best of times. But coming up with something fresh to say from the 39 verses the bible gives us about the birth of Jesus can be very difficult – even discouraging. Here are five principles to help pastors keep the story – and their preaching – fresh this Christmas.
Finding Buried Treasure in the Christmas Story Read More »
Breaking through the 200 barrier. Sometimes it feels like the only pastoring principle anyone has talked about for the past 30 years. In case you haven’t heard of it, the 200 barrier is the invisible ceiling a church must break through if it doesn’t want to be a Small Church any more. Do a Google
The Surprising Reason 80% of Churches Will Never Break the 200 Barrier Read More »
Bigger isn’t always better. When pastors ask each other if our churches are growing, the question we’re always – and I mean always – asking is are we getting bigger? Every year our church fills out a report on the vital statistics of the congregation. If the only thing you knew about our church was
My Church IS Growing, It’s Just Not Getting Bigger Read More »
It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but Christmas is also the busiest. A few years ago, our Small Church staff decided we weren’t going to compete with all the shopping, school plays, office parties and visits to Santa that were filling people’s calendars. We weren’t able to keep up, so we
4 Ways Your Church Can Help People Simplify Christmas Read More »
Impact. It’s what every pastor wants from their Sunday sermons (or talks, messages, homilies – take your pick). We want to have impact. We want the message, as Larry Osborne might put it, to be sticky. We want the words we speak, not just to make people feel good when they’re in church on Sunday, but to
3 Words That Can Make Your Sermons Sticky Read More »
Quick quiz – name an expert on big churches or church growth. There are probably several that come to mind immediately, right? There are plenty of well-known authors, speakers and academics, some of whom are pastors themselves. Now name an expert on Small Churches… I’m waiting… If you can think of one, it was probably
Where Are All the Small Church Experts? Read More »
Innovative? Small Church? Do those words belong in the same sentence? Can innovation happen in a Small Church? Is it even possible in an older Small Church? Turning a tired, dying congregation into a fresh, innovative church is one of the greatest challenges a pastor can tackle – even if the congregation is in full agreement.
3 Starter Principles for Becoming an Innovative Small Church Read More »
We want numbers to verify our successes. There are two huge problems with that sentence – and they’re found in the words “numbers” and “our”. First, not all successes have numbers to verify them. Second, the successes of the church are not our successes. We need to start getting comfortable, in the first instance, with
Could You Be OK Giving Your Success Away? Read More »
