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When Small Is Your Only Option (A Video and a Podcast)
There are a lot of reasons healthy Small Churches stay small that have nothing to do with lack of faith, wrong principles, laziness, settling for less or incompetence. I’ve written about some of those reasons here already. Here’s another reason. Sometimes churches stay small because small is their only option. Today, I’m presenting two posts
Congregations Are Fact-Checking Our Preaching – Here Are 4 Ways to Take Advantage of It
Have you noticed that fewer people are bringing their bibles to church, but are using a smartphone bible app instead? That’s not the only thing they’re reading in church. As it turns out, up to 38% of churchgoing Millennials will do an online search to verify what their pastor has said. And many of them
6 Benefits of Embracing the Fact that You’re a Small Church Pastor
Discovering and embracing the fact that I am a Small Church pastor was one of the most liberating moments of my life. It took me years to get there, but once I did… Wow! What relief!. As I’ve outlined in The Grasshopper Myth and in posts on this site, I didn’t want to admit I
9 No-Fault, No-Excuse Reasons Many Healthy Churches Stay Small
“What am I doing wrong?!” How many Small Church pastors constantly torture themselves with that question? And it doesn’t help that someone’s always writing another list to tell us about the mistakes and sins we must be committing that are keeping our church from the supposedly inevitable numerical growth we’d see if we got our act together. It’s not
6 Principles to Remember When Success Seems Elusive
I learned a few unexpected lessons on our recent trip to minister to Small Church pastors in Croatia. Most of them happened in the challenges we faced trying to get there. It started with a huge mistake that I made in Germany – filling our diesel car with gasoline (yeah, I know). Then, what should
Got a Tough Job You Want Done Right? Call a Small Church Pastor
Over the past two weekends my wife and I spent time with two groups of Small Church pastors who are doing work that few people would volunteer to do – and even fewer could do if they were asked. These two groups of pastors and the situations they face could not be more different from each other.
8 Arguments Against Social Media – And Why Your Church Needs to Use It Anyway
If you’re not using social media, you’re not pastoring your church as well as you could. Whenever I say that in a minister’s conference I make some pastors mad. And I’m OK with that. Because I also get looks of relief and whispers of “thank you” from staff members and volunteers. They’ve exhausted themselves trying to
Why I Don’t Trust Sermon Notes that Rhyme – And What I Do Instead
If I was only allowed to give one piece of advice to pastors about how to make their Sunday messages more appealing to a younger audience, it would be this. Stop making your sermon notes rhyme. For generations, rhymes and alliterations were expected from public speakers. It made them seem credible, authoritative and prepared. And
Bungee Cord Leadership: Using Tension to Guide Your Church Through Change
“How do you stay fresh and open to innovation after more than 20 years leading the same small church?” I get asked that a lot. There are a variety of factors of course, but today I want to tell you about one that has functioned almost subconsciously for me. When leading, especially when leading for
