Karl Vaters interviews Jeff Hamilton, founder of Dad Academy, about helping men become the dad they want to be.
Helping Men Become More Intentional Dads, with Jeff Hamilton (Podcast Ep 022) Read More »
Karl Vaters interviews Peyton Jones about church planting, specifically how most of our common perceptions of church planting are built on a faulty foundation, and how to do better.
Church Planting For Everyone, with Peyton Jones (Podcast Ep 021) Read More »
Whether-or-not you start a new ministry, leverage the infrastructure of an existing ministry, or create a hybrid of the two, what matters is that we use everything God has given us to meet people’s needs.
Why This May Be The Perfect Time To Plant A Church Or Reimagine Your Current Ministry Read More »
If you’re a new pastor or a church planter, perhaps the best word of advice I can give you is not to be a tribute band, but to be a great cover band.
What’s the difference?
While a tribute band plays the hits from one bad, even taking on their look, a cover band picks great songs from several bands and plays them all.
A great tribute band can give you a nostalgic evening, but it will never stretch the abilities of the musicians. It’s just paint-by-numbers for them. But being a cover band – especially when you’re starting out – is a wonderful way to learn how great music is written, performed and received by an audience.
My Best Advice For New Pastors And Church Planters? Be A Great Cover Band Read More »
If you’re a new pastor or a church planter, perhaps the best word of advice I can give you is not to be a tribute band, but to be a great cover band.
What’s the difference?
While a tribute band plays the hits from one bad, even taking on their look, a cover band picks great songs from several bands and plays them all.
A great tribute band can give you a nostalgic evening, but it will never stretch the abilities of the musicians. It’s just paint-by-numbers for them. But being a cover band – especially when you’re starting out – is a wonderful way to learn how great music is written, performed and received by an audience.
My Best Advice For New Pastors And Church Planters? Be A Great Cover Band Read More »
How did the church of Jesus grow for the first 1900+ years of its existence without any megachurches around?
That’s how long it took for the first megachurches to appear on the landscape. They’re the new kid on the church block. Until the middle of the 20th century, the relentless growth of the church moved forward, not through growing bigger churches, but almost exclusively through the multiplication of smaller congregations. And that’s where most of the growth of the church still happens today.
The church must always grow. The church will always grow. We know that because Jesus said he’d do it. In some places, that means larger congregations. In most places that means more healthy small congregations.
Real Church Growth Doesn’t Just Make Bigger Churches, It Heals Hurting Ones Read More »
Church planters are some of the great heroes of the faith. Especially when you realize how many church plants fail within the first few years.
But I wonder, how many failed churches might still be alive and well today if we didn’t pressure them to reach numerical goals that most churches, even after decades of existence, fail to achieve?
What would happen if, instead of sending one church planter to start a church, hoping for it to reach (to pick an arbitrary number) 5,000 attendees, we sent out 50 church planters, and resourced them with the tools to grow to 100 on average?
Not that every church will reach 100. Some will be bigger, some will be smaller. But if the expectation was 50 churches of 100, instead of one church of 5,000, how would it change the way we plant, resource and encourage churches?
And what if we applied that same logic to our existing churches?
11 Advantages Of Having 50 Churches Of 100 Instead Of 1 Church Of 5,000 Read More »
Small churches aren’t just for small towns.
There are thousands of small churches in big cities and sprawling suburbs, too.
But there aren’t enough of them.
Yes, you read that right. The problem with the church in big cities isn’t that we have too many small churches, it’s that we don’t have enough of them.
Big churches in big cities are great. And we need more of them. But big cities also need a lot more healthy, innovative, outward-reaching, God-honoring, neighborhood-blessing small churches.
Why? Because big city people like small churches, too.
Big Cities Need Great Small Churches, Too Read More »
We want numbers to verify our successes. There are two huge problems with that sentence – and they’re found in the words “numbers” and “our”. First, not all successes have numbers to verify them. Second, the successes of the church are not our successes. We need to start getting comfortable, in the first instance, with
Could You Be OK Giving Your Success Away? Read More »
