Preserving Unity with Multiple Worship Options
The most common complaint about moving to more than one worship service in a track 1 church is that people feel alienated from their former friends. Their unity seems to be disappearing. The real problem is that the church fails to provide a regular, high quality time for fellowship on Sunday morning that will involve […]
Volunteer Development
Every service-oriented organization in the world has realized that volunteer empowerment is both more important to their mission, and more difficult to accomplish. People are too busy to do anything that they are not motivated, trained, and fulfilled in doing. That means your first staff addition, after the pastor, is to add a full time […]
Evangelism for the Rest of Us
Evangelism for the Rest of Us Excerpted from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Evangelism by Bill Tenny-Brittian (Chalice Press, fall 2008) Over the years, especially with the rise of the Enlightenment and Modernity, an understanding crept into the church that mimicked our scientific culture. In science, if it can’t be measured and examined in some way, then […]
The Spiritual Leadership of the Board
Most churches underestimate the importance of the board members as “spiritual leaders”. Board members are often elected or appointed because of specific skills (teaching, finance, property management, etc.). However, as management responsibilities are delegated to a trusted, gifted few, it becomes more important that the board members be models for the spiritual life. They need to be […]
Church Growth Failure
Some of you may remember the Church Growth Movement of the sixties and seventies. Great leaders such as Donald McGavran and Win Arn led the movement and soon every church in town was running programs like Bring a Friend Sunday and doing follow-up with visitors. Every time you turned around, there was a new program […]
Modeling Jesus
When I was a kid, I used to like to put model airplanes together. Revell made all sorts of great models, but I loved the aircraft. I built a Mustang, a P38, and a number of others. I even tried my hands at building an aircraft carrier so I could build the accompanying aircraft. Now, […]