Author: 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 40 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 twelve books and the editor of Net Results magazine. Reach Bill here.

4 Ways Your Greeters Make Guests Feel Welcome

When it comes to first-time visitors, you may be surprised to learn that perhaps the most influential person your guests will meet isn’t your worship leader. It’s not the choir director, Christian education leader, or the board chair. It’s not even your pastor. Believe it or not, probably the most influential person your first-timers meet is your church greeter. […]

Put an End to Zombie Ministries

No, I’m not talking about pulling your support from zombie runs (though hopefully you have better things to do with your church’s resources). I’m talking about those ministries that probably got started years and years ago but have failed to bear sufficient fruit (but that keep on going and going and going anyway). The children’s […]

The Top Staff Positions for Churches Reaching Young Adults

A client recently posed a staffing question and asked me to address it. “Why should the first hired staff positions be (1) a worship leader for a non-traditional style worship service; and (2) a children’s director?” The answer is as simple as it should be self-evident. Without a steady influx of young families to the […]

Four Things that Keep People Out of Your Church

I suspect no church intentionally goes about barring their doors to keep new people out, but given the poor first-time visitor numbers in most churches, it sometimes seems like that might be the case. A healthy, growing church should be seeing enough first-time visitors each week that they make up 3 percent or more of […]

Holding a Congregation Accountable

I recently received a note with a question that I’m sure most pastors have asked themselves at one time or another. I’m afraid there are many answers to this question. And just like there are many answers to the why question, there are several answers to the unasked question, “How do we hold a congregation […]

Sermon Prep When Time Is Limited

One of the recommendations we make to pastors with churches under 200 is this: learn to do sermon and worship prep in less than two hours each week so you can spend the vast majority of your time reaching people for Jesus Christ. It’s not a popular recommendation. Homiletics professors faint. Long-time pastors just shake their […]