Your Church Numbers Count
I had a conversation recently with a small group of mainline pastors and the conversation naturally turned to church transformation and church growth. When I asked how they measured whether their churches were growing, plateauing, or declining I started getting the typical excuses and defensive posturing I so often hear. “Numbers aren’t important.”“Numbers don’t really […]
Summer Priorities: Prayer Walking
Time spent “prayer walking” is well worthwhile during the summer. Target the immediate streets or neighborhoods, but also specific areas where church members tend to reside, or from which church visitors seem to come. The warmer weather not only makes it easy for you to walk, but the public moves their daily behavior outdoors. Prayer […]
21st Century Evangelism
By Bill Easum Commitment to organized religion is now declining at the same time the public passionately pursues personal, spiritual journeys. How ironic that established/mainline denominations are shrinking during one of the most intensely spiritual periods in North American history. Aside from the spiritual malaise of many churches, two cultural changes lie behind this decline. […]
Why Don’t People Invite Their Friends?
It’s become very clear that church members aren’t inviting their friends (or anyone else) to join them for worship. A poll by the Barna Group revealed that 60 percent of people will not invite people to attend worship with them online (or Share or Like or Tag or even Check In). In the pre-COVID world, […]
A Guest-Friendly Website
Recently I was asked for recommendations for remodeling a church’s website. In response I wrote a too-long email, but a just right blog post. So I thought I’d share it here. A “tiny” bit of this is pretty technical, but even a novice will find some tips to help tighten up your site. (BTW, we […]
New Podcasts in the Toolbox – Get Yours Today
We keep the Effective Church Toolbox filled with tools to help congregations become increasingly effective, faithful, and sustainable. We added new podcasts to the resources this week: Win Arn on getting people in through the side door; Larry Osborne on Sticky Teams; and Clif Christopher on Whose Offering Plate Is It? If you’ve already “signed […]