When we do a church consultation, we always recommend that the worship services should be designed around their target audience … that worship should be indigenous to those you’re trying to reach. And so it happened that I was asked, “What do you mean by developing Indigenous Worship? What is indigenous worship?”
Ahh. Good question […]
One of the reasons small churches don’t grow is because they depend on “hope” as their core strategy. But hope is not a strategy. Very few church leaders have seriously worked through the strategies and logistics of what it takes to turn Visiting Victor into a disciple of Jesus. Instead, they “hope” he’ll figure […]
We get asked about how to turn visitors into returning guests pretty regularly. Over the years, we’ve been gathering some of the best ideas we’ve seen. Recently, I put together a string of some of the best practices from first visit to membership for a pastoral student and thought it might be helpful here. […]
This shouldn’t be news to you … but I keep running into the practice in declining churches.
If you’re still doing a Meet and Greet – or if your “Passing Peace” is a disguised version of the Meet and Greet (and they typically are!) – then
Stop It
Now!
To begin with, the Meet and Greet […]
By Guest Blogger Craig Huss
Published in Net Results Magazine, Nov-Dec 2019
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, known as GivingTuesday, is a day set aside for people to support the organizations, causes and communities that mean the most to them – often through charitable online donations.
It’s a significant time for religious organizations, which are the nation’s largest […]
When it comes to preaching about “sin” of any sort, I’ve always been of the opinion we should confront sin in the same manner Jesus did … he only ever confronted the hypocritical religious people. He didn’t tell Zacchaeus or Matthew to stop stealing. He didn’t tell the fishermen to stop swearing. He didn’t […]
Few churches know how to offer adequate hospitality to a non-Christian visitor. Being nice, loving, warm, and friendly isn’t the same thing as being hospitable. For instance, does your church bulletin use any of the following words:
InvocationBenedictionDoxologyPrayer ResponsePastoral PrayerHymnOfferingIntroitPreludePostludeor a host of others)
If so, then the bulletin isn’t pre-Christian ready because a […]
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.Matthew 5:16
This is one of those y’all commands – a command given not to an individual, but to the church, the community, the ekklessia (Greek you=2nd person plural, that is “y’all”).
And […]
“You can’t judge me!” It was a church member who was saying that as the pastor gently explained that their unseemly behavior at the previous board meeting had been unacceptable.
“Judge not” has become the rallying cry for tolerating bullies and terrorists in the church because, well, it just doesn’t seem right to “judge” […]
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