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Church Growth Is Not an Exact Science
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.
Is Your Negative Online Behavior Killing Your Ministry Opportunities?
What is it about the internet that seems to bring out the jerk in so many people? Ministers included.
If you have a habit of using the internet to vent, even if it’s to vent against things you feel need to be denounced, be aware of the unintended consequences attached to it.
It’s the new normal for pastoral search committees and church leaders to check out your online behavior when deciding to partner with you in ministry or hire their next pastor.
The biggest reason people pass you over? A mean, critical or overly judgmental spirit in online conversations.
6 Realities & Trends In Bivocational Ministry
I’m not a church planter. But I spent three days teaching at the Exponential West conference for church planters last week.
I’ve also never been bivocational. But almost all the teaching I did was with bivocational pastors – most of it tag-team teaching with Hugh Halter and Artie Davis.
So why was I there? The one thing we all have in common is the Small Church experience.
I had a great time sharing my story and the lessons learned along the way, and hearing their stories, too. Bivocational pastors have a lot to teach the rest of us.
Because of the chance to spend so much time together (over 10 hours of teaching and conversations) we all learned a lot about the current state of bivocational ministry and some trends we’re likely to see in the near future.
Here’s a recap of six of them.
Every Revival Has Its Own Soundtrack (New Music, Part 2)
Well that was fun!
Monday’s post, God Has Never Done a New Thing Using Old Songs, received more comments than any other post over any two day period in the history of this site. It also stirred things up on Twitter, Facebook and my email inbox.
Yet, in spite of all the passion, the commenters were civil, thoughtful, reasonable and very helpful. No name-calling, mean language or accusations of heresy in the whole bunch. Whadya know, maybe we can have disagreements on the internet and still respect each other. Way to go, everyone!
Since there were so many great questions and comments raised by Monday’s post, today’s post is a collection of questions and responses that added something new to the conversation. This way, you won’t have to scroll through everything just to see where the conversation went.
So, with genuine thanks to everyone who participated in the conversation, here’s how some of the Comments and Responses went.
God Has Never Done a New Thing Using Old Songs
Every old song used to be a new song.
I wonder who the first worship director was who said “hey, I like that new song John Newton wrote,” before introducing Amazing Grace to the church.
Whoever it was, he probably had to deal with complaints from church members who didn’t think it was as good as the hymns they were used to singing. “In six verses the name of Jesus isn’t mentioned once, but it says ‘me’, ‘my’ and ‘I’ thirteen times! Today’s songs are so self-centered and shallow!”
In a recent post entitled, Six Reasons Some Churches Are Moving Back to One Worship Style, Thom Rainer tells us that, according to some of his recent surveys, the contemporary vs traditional worship wars may be drawing to a close.
I hope new music won.
Jethro, Moses and the Hands-On Pastor
In a big church, Jethro’s 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 level leadership model can, and should be fully implemented. When it is, there are at least four levels between the members and the pastor, meaning only the most vital, big issues get to the pastor. And rightfully so in a church of 2,000 or more.
But in a church of 50, even if the pastor has done a superb job of training, discipling and delegating 10-level leaders, the pastor is still dealing with all the 50-level problems. That means the Small Church pastor deals with a lot more personal and family issues than a megachurch pastor will ever see. And those are the issues that require a lot of time, patience and emotional fortitude. You know, the hands-on stuff.
23 Non-Numerical Signs of a Healthy Church
“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.
Blinded By Bigness: Appreciating Smallness In a Big Church World
If my life had gone according to my plans, I would not be pastoring a Small Church today.
I’d be pastoring a big church.
Because I like big churches. I wanted a big church.
As it turns out, a Small Church is better for me. It’s better for my ministry, my soul and my easily-inflated ego.
I’m glad my life doesn’t always go according to my plans.
No, Small Churches aren’t better for everyone. But they are for a lot of people. I happen to be one of those people.
My appreciation for big things – especially big new things – probably has more to do with the culture I live in than my actual personal desires. It’s not about the true longing of my soul as much as it is about what I’ve been told I should like.
Sometimes I’m blinded by bigness.
The Growing Disconnect Between Spiritual Hunger and Church Attendance
Doing church together is an essential aspect of what it means to be a Christian. But church attendance rates keep dropping in most of the developed world.
Why? I often hear it’s because people aren’t as spiritually-minded as they used to be. After all, if it’s not their fault, then some of it might be our fault. And that can’t be.
But the evidence doesn’t support that. In fact, it suggests that people’s spiritual hunger may be growing, not shrinking. Spiritually-themed books, movies, TV shows and blogs are having a major resurgence. Alternative spirituality is booming.
Spiritual hunger isn’t a cultural thing. That God-shaped hole is hard-wired into every one of us. Church attendance isn’t down because people have stopped caring about spiritual things. It’s because we haven’t done such a great job at showing them how church attendance will help them answer that longing.
