Innovative Ministry Archives - Page 5 of 19

Is Church Growth The Best Way to Make More Disciples In Your Neighborhood?

July 30, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

Because I minister in and to small churches, I’m often asked, “aren’t you worried, that by supporting small churches you’ll be encouraging churches that could grow, to stay small instead?”

Yes. That is a concern. One that I’ve addressed in Small Church Essentials, and in several posts including, Small Churches Are Not a Problem, a Virtue or an Excuse.

But I also have a question of my own. One that’s almost never considered. Namely, “aren’t you worried, that by supporting individual congregational growth, you’ll be encouraging churches that should stay small, to get bigger instead?”

That question is so foreign to us it almost feels wrong to ask, doesn’t it?

Is Church Growth The Best Way to Make More Disciples In Your Neighborhood? Read More »

Why Most Small Churches Don’t Use (Or Need) An Organizational Chart

July 27, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

Does your small church have an Organizational (Org) Chart?

If you don’t, relax. You probably don’t need one.

If you do, brace yourself. You may want to get rid of it because they tend not to work in small churches like they work in large churches. In fact, some of the problems that you think are people related may in fact be Org Chart related.

In small churches, having an Org Chart can cause more frustration than they’re worth.

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Want Real Church Growth? Don’t Fill Your Building, Empty It

July 23, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

Getting more people to go to church has never been the point of church growth.

Jesus didn’t tell us to “work really hard to gather people into large crowds to fill up your church buildings. Then I’ll know that you love me.” But when you look at how most pastors (including me) spend much of our time and energy, sometimes it feels like we think that.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Facebook posts and blogs longing for the “good old days” when churches were full on Sunday mornings, evenings and during the week.

I understand that longing. After all, I’ve experienced many a Sunday with depressingly small church attendance. But I don’t want to hear about churches filling up as a sign of revival, renewal or spiritual awakening any more! I want to hear about churches emptying out. Out into their community to minister, to serve and to share the good news. That’s a greater sign of effective ministry than an increase in church attendance will ever be.

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Small Churches, Leadership And Culture: Karl Vaters Interviews William Vanderbloemen

June 7, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

William Vanderbloemen is the CEO and Founder of the Vanderbloemen Search Group, a company that works with churches to help them hire staff, plan for the future and more. Recently, William and I (Karl) did an interview exchange. He interviewed me for his podcast (click here) and I interviewed him for this blog post.

In this exchange, William expresses his appreciation for small churches and their leaders, talks about the importance of your church’s culture, and offers some great ideas and encouragement from his experiences working with hundreds of churches of all sizes.

Karl Vaters: You work with churches of all sizes. For many people, the advantages of big churches are obvious. What strengths do small churches have that they should lean in to?

William Vanderbloemen: Small is a four-letter word. People talk about small churches, and they don’t remember that what they mean by saying small is actually the average, normal church in the United States, with 100 or 150 people gathering on a weekend. One of the major strengths this type of church brings to the table is they are much more resilient to a change in leadership than a large church.

One time I heard it said that when a small church loses their leader, it’s like a cat with nine lives. They’ll be fine. They bounce back. If a large church loses their leader, it’s like a beached whale, and they have a hard, hard time getting things right again. Resiliency is a huge strength for small churches.

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Small Churches, Leadership And Culture: Karl Vaters Interviews William Vanderbloemen

June 7, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

Karl Vaters: You work with churches of all sizes. For many people, the advantages of big churches are obvious. What strengths do small churches have that they should lean in to?

Small Churches, Leadership And Culture: Karl Vaters Interviews William Vanderbloemen Read More »

Church Attendance Patterns Are Changing And We Have To Adapt

May 2, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

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.

Here’s why.

According to Thom Rainer, “About 20 years ago, a church member was considered active in the church if he or she attended three times a week. Today, a church member is considered active in the church if he or she attends three times a month.” In many places, it’s even lower than that.

This is not fringe people who are attending that infrequently. And these are not people who have quit going to church. This is the pattern for active church members.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, of course, as Thom Rainer goes on to explain in this post. Carey Nieuwhof has a different, but also helpful take on why this is happening in a series that starts with this article.

Since they’ve covered the “why?” so well, I’m not going to try to add to it. Instead, I want to make a couple observations about what it means for the average church.

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The Mission Deserves Margin: Minister To The Church You Have, While Preparing For More

April 26, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

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 pastoring the people we have?

While pastoring the people we have, we need to create in-house systems and outward ministry suitable for a church of double our current size.

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The Mission Deserves Margin: Minister To The Church You Have, While Preparing For More

April 26, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

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 pastoring the people we have?

While pastoring the people we have, we need to create in-house systems and outward ministry suitable for a church of double our current size.

The Mission Deserves Margin: Minister To The Church You Have, While Preparing For More Read More »

Love God, Love People, Make Disciples – Everything Else Is Scaffolding

April 6, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

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 and extra-biblical tradition is scaffolding. We put them in place to help us do what Jesus called us to do – The Great Commandment and The Great Commission.

And as long as our buildings, programs, services and traditions are helping us stay obedient to the call of Christ they should stay in place. But, like construction scaffolding, we need to be willing to remove or replace them when they stop being effective.

Unfortunately, we all have a tendency to get emotionally attached to the scaffolding we’ve grown accustomed to. After years of working on it and living in it, it’s easy to mistake the scaffolding for the main project.

When we do that, our scaffolding has become our idol.

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Pastoral Transition: Why Change When You Don’t Have To?

March 25, 2018 / 1 minute of reading

Yesterday, I was back in my home church after being gone for a month doing conferences and taking some vacation time with my wife, Shelley.

We’ve taken time away before, of course, but this time it was different. Because when I came back yesterday, for the first Sunday in over 25 years, I wasn’t the lead pastor any more.

I didn’t oversee yesterday’s service. I wasn’t responsible for coordinating the staff and volunteers. I don’t even have an office. But I got to participate in the celebration of installing my former youth pastor as our new lead pastor.

It felt different. And welcoming. And awkward. And wonderful.

In the past couple months, since announcing and writing about our pastoral transition (here, here and here), I’ve been asked a lot of questions, but most of them start with the same word.

Why?

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