Resources

Money & the Small Church: 3 Reasons We Can’t Ignore It

/ 5 minutes of reading

Not having enough money is a huge problem in life and in ministry. Yet it’s just the way things are for the Small Church – and for the Small Church pastor.

But helping those who are in even greater need than we are is one of the primary callings of the church.

It’s one of the few things every Small Church has in common.

How do we do more ministry with so little money?

Because of my intense dislike of money, I have written very little about it in the two year life-span of NewSmallChurch.com. But it’s probably the subject I’ve been asked about more than any other.

I haven’t intentionally avoided writing about it. I just feel woefully inadequate to present myself as some kind of expert on the subject.

But in more than thirty years in ministry, I’ve been forced to learn about it – especially in the last half decade or so.

So, despite my misgivings – or maybe because of them – I plan to write several posts on the subject of Money & the Church in the next few weeks. Then we’ll come back to this series on a regular basis.

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23 Non-Numerical Signs of a Healthy Church

/ 3 minutes of reading

“If we don’t use numbers to determine if a church is healthy, what criteria should we use?”

I get that question a lot. Mostly from other pastors.

And no, they’re not being facetious when they ask it. They truly don’t know the answer.

Isn’t that… I don’t know… a little disturbing to anyone? Have we really become so obsessed with numbers that many, maybe most pastors really don’t know how to tell what a healthy church looks like, outside of crunching the numbers?

The truth is, I’m not opposed to taking church attendance or tracking our numbers. I’m in favor of them. Numbers can help us see things objectively that we might otherwise be blind to. But just like lack of numbers can blind us to some truths, an obsession with numbers can blind us to other truths.

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Transition Without Relocation: 8 Ways to Stay Fresh In a Long-Term Pastorate

/ 7 minutes of reading

Behind every great church, large or small, is at least one pastor who has been there long enough to outlast the bad times and build on the good times.

It is the most common thread for great churches. Pastors who stick around.

But pastoral longevity has its dark side too. The tendency to become stale.

Every time I talk about the value of long-term pastorates, as I did in last week’s post, Small Church Ministry: A Stepping Stone Or a Place to Stand?, people remind me of horror stories about churches that withered into ineffectiveness because a pastor stayed too long.

That’s a reality which can’t be ignored, so today’s post is about that dark side – and how to overcome it.

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Please Stop Writing “Here’s Why Your Church Isn’t Growing” Lists – They Don’t Help

/ 5 minutes of reading

When an already-discouraged pastor reads a list telling them their church isn’t growing because they’re visionless, self-serving and petty, it doesn’t lift them up, it beats them down.

Guilt doesn’t motivate, it discourages. Besides, those petty attitudes aren’t true for us. Pastors who don’t care, don’t read church leadership blogs!

Don’t slap our hands, put tools in them. Tools that will work for us now, while we’re small. Tools that promote health and growth. Tools that encourage and inspire us. Slapping the hands of your readers for not caring is like yelling at the people who did show up to church because you’re mad at the people who didn’t show up.

We need a moratorium on “Why Your Church Isn’t Growing” lists for one simple reason: they don’t work!

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Some Advantages and Challenges of Building Your Own Small Church Leadership Team

/ 3 minutes of reading

I am an unapologetic fan of pastors and churches finding, training and building leadership teams from within our churches, instead of hiring them from the outside. Yes, there are exceptions to that, especially in larger churches, when there may be a need for ministers with some very specific skillsets. But in a Small Church, building

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Great Small Church Leadership Teams Aren’t Hired, They’re Built

/ 4 minutes of reading

People often ask me how I was able to hire such a great leadership team in our Small Church. My answer? We didn’t hire our team. We built it from the inside out. And we’re still building it. Not one of our staff members was hired from outside the church – other than me. They were all attenders and members

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Preaching to Newbies and Mature Christians at the Same Time

/ 5 minutes of reading

Every week, pastors all over the world are asked to do something that is almost impossible. Preach a message to a group of people that includes Teenagers to seniors Men and women Mature disciples and not-yet-believers The faithful and the skeptical Regular attenders and first-time guests Singles, married, divorced, and “it’s complicated” Those who need comfort

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5 Principles to Consider Before Starting or Stopping a Ministry

/ 5 minutes of reading

Wouldn’t it be great if every local church and every ministry within each church was vital, valuable and meeting real needs? Certainly a 100% success record is not possible. It’s not even desirable, since we learn as much through our failures as our successes. But increasing our batting average on successful ministries is always a

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