I read a lot of blog posts.
Correction: I monitor a ton of blog posts, skim a lot of them and read about one a day.
Of that number, I usually find about two per week that I think are worth passing on to other small church pastors.
Today, I’m starting a monthly feature, exclusively for NewSmallChurch.com readers. Links to some blog posts that I think are worth your time. (By the way, I don’t have to agree with everything in the post to like it and pass it on.)
The Top 20 Countries Where Christianity is Growing the Fastest
Helpful and encouraging stats that show us the Gospel is breaking up some hard ground in places where almost all the churches are small, but multiplying:
“19 of the countries in the top 20 are in Asia and Africa … 11 countries on the top 20 list are Muslim majority countries.”
The Evangelism Conversation No One Is Having
A Carey Nieuwhof podcast with Lewis Howes about the growing perception that the church – and pastors in particular – have little to offer people in their spiritual search.
“It’s not that people aren’t interested in spirituality; it’s that they don’t think the church can help them. People have spiritual conversations daily. They never think of turning to the church for answers.”
The Incredible Future of the Medium-to-Small-Sized Church
Bob Roberts shares some encouragement, concluding with this sentence:
“If Jonathan Edwards could pastor barely 200 people and see the Great Awakening – what could God do with you?”
Speaking of Jonathan Edwards…
5 Things Jonathan Edwards Teaches Us about the Christian Life
Some great conversation-starters that may feel counter-intuitive to a lot of us, such as Point 3:
“Authentic discipleship to Jesus Christ calms and gentle-izes (not radicalizes and excites) Christians.”
10 Troubling Statements From Church Leaders and Members
Thom Rainer’s take on some common ways church leaders think wrongly. Here’s #2:
“We have enough churches in our community.”
5 Questions to Ask When You Realize Church Revitalization is not Church Growth
Good ideas from The Malphurs Group, which includes this:
“When you grow a church numerically and do not address the previous culture that caused the decline, this only shows you know how to gather people.”
In Defense of Worship as a Concert
Austin Fischer offers this fresh take on a controversial subject:
“It seems to me that worship doesn’t need to be less like a concert so much as it needs to be less like a bad concert and more like a good one. Because if you think people don’t participate in concerts, I suspect you’ve never been to a great concert.”
Got Anything Else?
If you find blog posts, books or podcasts you like, let me know. I may pass them on in next month’s Stuff I Like post.
So what do you think? What did you like and/or disagree with in these posts?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
Enter your comment right below this post and get in on the conversation.
(Sand Runner photo from Thomas Shahan • Flickr • Creative Commons license)
