Church Growth and Church Transformation
Today’s spiritual seekers rarely turn to Christianity or to the church to find the answers they seek because of their past experiences or because of the church and faith’s reputation. Too often, spiritual seekers have turned in desperation to the church only to discover the church embroiled in “business as usual,” that leaves little room [...]
For some reason, I made it to the airport without my requisite yellow pad of paper. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll just read and write on my iPad.” Oops … not until I get to 10,000 feet. So on the ascent I leafed through the United airlines Hemispheres magazine and an interview with Daymond John [...]
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book 21st Century Strategies for Church Growth … One of the serious shortcomings of most centers of higher learning is that they educate the head but fail to train the student. The difference between teaching and training is this: effective teaching focuses on passing information from teacher to [...]
The following post is a rough draft of a section in Chapter 1 in the upcoming book 21st Century Strategies for Church Growth. Grow Spiritual Leaders to Grow Spiritual Members Issue Today’s spiritual seekers rarely turn to Christianity or to the church to find the answers they seek because of their past experiences or because [...]
Again, this is a preview from my upcoming book 21st Century Strategies for Church Growth Streamline Decision-Making with High-Trust Leaders In most churches, the decision making process is cumbersome at best and dysfunctional at worst. The solution to the issue is found in mission and vision alignment and in selecting only trustworthy leaders of integrity [...]
One of the toughest things to do is say “no.” In the How to Say “No” episode of Church-Talk Drs. Bill and Kris share not only how to say “no” but how to help those you lead to say “no.” It’s no secret one of the most difficult things to learn to say is the [...]
There’s more to public praying than just heeding some “Thou shalt nots” (such as thou shalt not use the words Lord or just as a comma between long, run-on sentences … “We just pray, Lord, that you would just hear our prayers, Lord, and just touch the hearts and souls of the congregation, Lord; and [...]
It has always amazed me at how churches so easily get staffing wrong. I know in their heart-of-hearts they believe that by hiring age-graded directors/pastors/associate ministers that they’re staffing to grow, but in today’s culture … especially in our less than optimum giving culture … it’s simply no longer feasible to hire a new staff [...]
If you can learn to delegate and empower others, you can grow a church. Sure, I know … handing off those things you “think” are your responsibilities isn’t easy. And in my experience, it appears that for most pastors it’s one of the hardest things you’ll have to learn. If you’re like most pastors, you [...]
This brief list was inspired by a blog post by Ben Reed at http://www.benreed.net/index.php/2012/09/10/10-things-i-wish-id-been-told-in-seminary/ Once I read it, I thought I’d jot down my own top ten list and asked Bill Easum to do the same. I found it interesting to see what the three of us identified. Bill T-B’s List Today’s churches need leaders [...]
