Encouragement

6 Lessons, Blessings & Cautions from 2 Years of Blogging

/ 6 minutes of reading

Last month, the second anniversary of NewSmallChurch.com passed by without notice. No, I don’t feel sad that none one sent me a card. Hallmark is still working on a set of “Your blog is two years old today!” cards.

I just didn’t remember it myself. I’m not big on anniversaries.

But we have passed that two-year mark, so I decided to take a moment to reflect on what’s happened in the last two years, and what I’ve learned from it.

Truthfully, it’s almost hard to remember what my life and ministry was like before I started this. Writing, blogging, travelling and speaking has taken up such a chunk of my time that it’s completely changed my schedule. I’ve met so many great people that I would no know today without this.

But mostly, the last two years have re-affirmed the premise of this blog and The Grasshopper Myth – that playing the numbers game in ministry is a dangerous thing.

Yes, reaching more people is better than reaching fewer people. This blog and my book have reached ten times more people in these two years than I expected to reach in my lifetime, and I’m profoundly grateful for that. After all, we write, preach, teach and pastor to touch people’s lives. It’s appropriate that we want those efforts to have a positive impact on as many people as possible.

But readership and attendance numbers can only tell us so much. And some of what we think they’re telling us is false.

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Church Growth Is Not an Exact Science

/ 4 minutes of reading

It’s easy to spot an unhealthy church that won’t grow.

Lack of vision, inadequate systems, poor planning, unfriendly people and more will doom a church to irrelevance very quickly. Spotting such churches is obvious and easy, especially for anyone who has spent much time in pastoral ministry.

It’s much harder to spot a church that will grow. Or a healthy church that may not grow.

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Small Church Ministry: A Stepping-Stone Or a Place to Stand?

/ 4 minutes of reading

You know that pastor you run in to at church conferences who’s always looking over your shoulder to see if there’s someone better to talk to?

A lot of us may be doing that to the church we’re pastoring.

In a recent comment on NewSmallChurch.com, a reader named Tom Burkholder wrote this: “As a bi-vocational pastor for over 23 years there are very few fellow ministers who do not see small churches as stepping stones instead of real long-term ministries.”

I responded to him this way:

“That’s a great point about stepping-stones, Tom. I think one of the big reasons many Small Churches stay unhealthy when they don’t need to, is that too many pastors aren’t putting their heart into the Small Church ministry they have.

“Instead, they’re looking for something bigger – or they put all their energy into making their Small Church bigger, instead of healthier. This makes the church they are supposed to be pastoring feel overlooked and neglected. That’s not a great recipe for a healthy ministry or a healthy church.”

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Don’t Try To Be Successful – Try To Do Good Work

/ 3 minutes of reading

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 that I abandoned this principle and did things for the numbers, I

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Why I Stopped Taking Attendance at My Church for a While

/ 4 minutes of reading

Numbers matter. Because people matter. If we keep track of them correctly, the right numbers can give us a lot of helpful information about a church and its ministries. For many years, I kept track of church attendance numbers very carefully. As the church grew, I calculated growth patterns, percentages, demographics, you name it. I found that counting

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The World’s Best Small Churches

/ 4 minutes of reading

No one will ever make a list of the greatest Small Churches in the world. And they shouldn’t. After all, a great urban Small Church looks very different from a great rural one. Same with a great Baptist and Methodist church. Or a great Small Church in Japan or Costa Rica, etc. Even if there

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For Every Minister Who Struggles With Your Prayer Life

/ 3 minutes of reading

We all struggle with the age-old question, “Is God pleased with me and what I’m doing?” Because prayer is hard, many of us use cheap substitutes to answer that question.

Instead of wrestling with the difficult aspects of our relationship with Jesus, many pastors rely on the newest church leadership methods and systems to answer the “is God pleased with me?” question.

It’s quicker and easier to measure our success through numbers and metrics than it is to struggle with our insecurities through prayer. But quicker and easier aren’t better.

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Is Your Church Stuck, Or Just Small?

/ 4 minutes of reading

If a church is healthy in every way but numerical growth, is it really stuck? No.

It turns out my church wasn’t stuck at all. It was just small. And if that’s the case – if a Small Church can be a healthy church – then maybe numerical growth isn’t the be-all, end-all sign of health we’ve made it out to be.

Maybe a healthy Small Church is an OK thing to be.

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Same Workload, Fewer Numbers: Why a Small Church Pastor May Need Your Encouragement Today

/ 3 minutes of reading

Pastoring is hard work, with little reward. No matter what size your church is. Pastoring a Small Church is hard work with fewer tangible rewards. Not to mention what sometimes feels like a constant drumbeat of criticism when your church isn’t growing like some people think it should.

If you’re a Small Church pastor or church leader, please take this short blog post as evidence that you’re loved and appreciated. You’re not alone. God knows. And so do a lot of us who work in the trenches with you.

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