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About Bill Tenny-Brittian

Bill is the Managing Partner at The Effective Church Group. He began ministry as a church planter in the early 1980s and over the past 35 years he's grown churches from one side of the nation to the other. In 2002 he joined Bill Easum's consultation group and began partnering with churches and church leaders to help them reach their fullest potential. He is the author of nine books and the editor of Net Results magazine. Reach Bill here.

Be Crystal Clear

I read a goal statement for a youth program recently. In sum, the statement read:

The goal for the Youth Program is to reach the youth in our congregation and encourage them to bring a friend to each gathering.

The question I pondered on was what does it mean to “reach the youth”? An […]

Failed Vision

Most visions fail for two reasons: (1) They fall off the radar for lack of ongoing leadership support and communication; and (2) The next steps get left out.

Once you have a vision, then a strategy for reaching that vision must be chosen. And once there’s a strategy, then milestones must be discerned and […]

Reality Check

Truth be known, most church leaders don’t hit the Church Growth Panic Button until the money hits the fan. At the moment it becomes clear that the endowments aren’t going to last forever and the only remaining line item in the budget left to slash is the part-time salary of the beloved eighty-two year […]

Ho-Hum or Compelling … You Decide

I was working with a church leader who was in process of creating a vision. Here’s our exchange:

A quick vision lesson … which is more compelling?

My Vision would be to be a place that young families can go to in order to realize that they are not the only one feeling the way that […]

Church Targets

There’s a marketing axiom that says if you try and market to everyone, you market to no one.

It works that way in the church too. When a church tries to reach “everyone,” it effectively reaches no one. That doesn’t mean everyone isn’t welcome … if everyone isn’t welcome, you’re not running a church, […]

Why Kid’s Sunday School is Losing

We wring our hands and bemoan the rise of kid sports and the losses in our Sunday schools. Sunday is no longer sacrosanct and reserved for “Church Use Only.” Today’s families have choices to make and to be fair, they take their choice-making pretty seriously.

It turns out, parents have their kids participating in […]

Crock Pot Relationships

We live in a microwave world. Time is our most precious commodity, so we favor anything that speeds up the process. Instant oats. Instant potatoes. Instant copies. Instant answers. Even love at first sight.

Relationships don’t fit on the microwave turntable. They’re more of a crock pot kind of affair. They take time to […]

Survival is Suicidal

One guarantee: If survival is the goal of a church, then death is the inevitable outcome.

Survival is “all about us.” When a church is all about us, it’s not at all about the gospel, making disciples, or being faithful to the biblical mandates to welcome the stranger. Only when a church is willing […]

Start the Conversation Right

I was asked recently, “How do I start a conversation with an unchurched person? Should I just ask about their church home or whether or not they go to church?”

Let’s think about this. If you ask an unchurched person whether or not they go to church, you’re effectively cutting off further conversation because their […]