7 Things To Do Outside the Church Office
I teach the Pastoral Leadership Course at the Center for Ministry Training Program at Phillips Seminary. It’s an eight-week online intensive on what it takes to be an effective leader in the church today. One of the things I teach during the course is that a pastor cannot grow the church by staying in their […]
10 Things to Do to Lead a Turnaround
I was recently asked what advice I’d give to a pastor getting ready to start a new transformation effort in a small church that’s been in decline for years. Here are the top 10 things I recommended. Hand off everything you possibly can. Hand off regular hospital visitation, shut-in visitation, member care, etc. Instead, build […]
Church of Tomorrow – Invested and Committed
My wife and I just completed a trip that we wanted to do since we were kids. We went to Alaska, land of 10,000 blogs (BTW – Alaska has 3 million lakes; sorry Minnesota). The first part of the trip was a cruise up the inside passage. There’s a reason that you are told to […]
To Make Disciples You Must Look Like a Disciple
My bucket list is now empty. Jesus can take me home. My wife and I took a trip of a lifetime to Alaska. It was a group trip at times which means it didn’t always feel like a vacation. Sometimes it seemed like church – at its worst. We gathered onto a motor coach in […]
Is it Time to Drop the Requirement: Part Two
My post, titled “Is It Time To Drop The Requirement,” resulted in several responses, which prompted me to do a little more digging into the subject of ordination. And after extensive reading on the subject I conclude there is absolutely no mention of ordination in the New Testament. By the second part of the second […]
Can This Church Turnaround? Case Study #1
Established: ~1904 Tribe: Protestant Mainline Worship Style: Rural traditional, family informal Congregational Demographics: AWA: 32 Trend: 20 years steep decline; 8 years slow decline; followed by 10 years slight decline Median Age: 61 Adult Generations: 21 Builders+; 8 Boomers; 2 Gen-X; 1 Millennial Children/Youth: 2–3 Ethnic Mix: Anglo SES: Mixed, mostly blue collar; income […]