In a strong, healthy Small Church, chronic complainers can cause a lot of stress on the pastor and other leaders. If the Small Church is weak and/or unhealthy, complainers can kill a pastor’s and church’s spirit, sometimes without intending to. In Part 1 of this series, we saw some things we can do to move […]
Chronic Complainers, Part 2 – When Win-Win is a No-Go Read More »
In a strong, healthy Small Church, chronic complainers can cause a lot of stress on the pastor and other leaders. If the Small Church is weak and/or unhealthy, complainers can kill a pastor’s and church’s spirit, sometimes without intending to. In Part 1 of this series, we saw some things we can do to move
Chronic Complainers, Part 2 – When Win-Win is a No-Go Read More »
Chronic complainers aren’t a huge issue in a big church. Very few congregation members will know them, and even the pastor may only be aware of them by email (but so many emails!). In a Small Church their voice is loud. They know everyone – and everyone knows them. The challenge for Small Church pastors
Chronic Complainers, Part 1 – Creating a Win-Win Read More »
All my life I’ve heard preachers talk about a coming worldwide revival. But it’s never happened. There have been pockets of excitement, from the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, to the church growth movement of the 1980s. The 1990s brought local spiritual outbreaks in places like Toronto and Florida, along with controversy over their genuineness
Is the Era of the Megachurch Over? Read More »
Quick quiz – name an expert on big churches or church growth. There are probably several that come to mind immediately, right? There are plenty of well-known authors, speakers and academics, some of whom are pastors themselves. Now name an expert on Small Churches… I’m waiting… If you can think of one, it was probably
Where Are All the Small Church Experts? Read More »
One of the best characteristics of many Small Churches is that everyone wants to pitch in. One of the worst characteristics of many Small Churches is that everyone wants to pitch in. Sometimes that volunteer spirit has great results. Sometimes…not so much. The split-screen photograph in this post is an especially hilarious example of the
The Over-Enthusiastic Volunteer Syndrome Read More »
Are you a small church pastor? Seems like an easy question, right? But it doesn’t have an easy answer. Many Small Church pastors don’t know they’re Small Church pastors. I’ll tell you why in a minute. But first, here’s a short quiz you can take to find out if you’re a Small Church pastor. 1.
You May Be a Small Church Pastor and Not Even Know It Read More »
Earlier this week, I wrote a couple mini-rants in the comment sections of two ministry websites. The authors of the blogs weren’t the targets of my frustration. They actually brought up some good ideas. But the underlying issues got me going, so I jumped in. Here’s what the blogs posted about, followed by what I
Can Measuring a Church Hurt It? Read More »
New Small Church is not about timid little churches. It’s not about pastors and leaders who operate out of guilt or fear. It’s not about congregations that don’t want to move forward. And it’s definitely not about settling for less. It is about discovering who we are as churches, leaders and congregations, then using that
No TLCs (Timid Little Churches) Read More »
Restaurant experts know that telling a hard-working, exhausted restaurant owner to build a bigger restaurant is not a wise or helpful strategy. Church leaders need to figure that out, too. Instead of telling hard-working, exhausted pastors of struggling congregations to build bigger churches, let’s help them build healthy Small Churches. This is the second of a
