Preach For Life Change Preach for Transformation

I suspect that exegetically and homiletically, the sermon would be considered a winner. The biblical text was put into its historical context for the audience, Greek roots were exposed and explained, and there were excellent anecdotes, statistics, stories, and personal experiences sprinkled throughout. The title was memorable and the presentation was nearly superb. As […]

Online Church Fundraising: 5 Best Practices To Follow

Churches like yours depend on donations from congregation members to not only make their operations possible but also grow the church and its impact on the community. Seeing as 63 percent of donors prefer to give online, your church should focus its fundraising efforts there.

But in an increasingly digital world, there are many players—from […]

Are You Making These Five Hospitality Mistakes?

They had a problem. A BIG problem.

More than nine out of ten first-time visitors who walked through the door never returned. It was like their visitors walked in, took a quick look around, and maybe even kicked the tires and hung out for worship, but once they left the building, their sentiments were, “Cross that church […]

How to Create a Budget for Your Church: 4 Best Practices

As a church leader, you know how important it is for your church to effectively steward its resources. After all, you can only serve the community and engage your congregation if you have the necessary funding for your mission-driven activities!

Accounting best practices provide a framework for managing your church’s finances, and one critical element […]

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 […]

Building the Disciple-Driven Church

Introduction

It seems that in most churches today, the leaders are drowning in tasks and responsibilities. This gets in the way of building a Disciple-Driven Church. For instance, The stewardship chair is preoccupied with budgets, the board chair is overwhelmed with meetings and agendas, and Sunday school teachers are fixated on their next lesson plan. […]

Four Key Strategies That Will Grow Your Church

Growing a church isn’t about finding a magic bullet or the latest trendy program. It’s about focusing on what truly matters. After decades of working with churches across the nation, I’ve found that sustainable church growth boils down to four core processes: Invite, Connect, Disciple, and Send. Bill Easum and I wrote about these […]

Five Secrets to Getting Volunteers to Perform

The Easter egg hunt should have been a huge success. Over 250 kids showed up and there were young parents by the bushel in attendance. But the pastor was beside himself. “It’s not that we have trouble getting people to volunteer. We had over twenty people say they’d be here to help – but only […]

Implementing Your Mission Statement

First a word about most church mission statements.

They’re beautifully word-smithed

They’re gorgeous

They’re suitable for framing.

But a mission statement that’s suitable for framing is rarely a mission statement that’s suitable for much of anything else.

A quick reminder that the founder of the church is the one who set its mission and that mission can be summed […]