Butts and Bucks
For years, I’ve heard progressive church leaders decry the emphasis on numbers, especially average worship attendance and member giving. Like virtually every church consultation firm, we get accused and badmouthed for our continued insistence that the churches we work with provide us with their numbers for the previous ten years. Numbers like: Average worship attendance […]
What’s Indigenous?
When we do a church consultation, we always recommend that the worship services should be designed around their target audience … that worship should be indigenous to those you’re trying to reach. And so it happened that I was asked, “What do you mean by developing Indigenous Worship? What is indigenous worship?” Ahh. Good question […]
Is Your Worship Pre-Christian Ready?
Few churches know how to offer adequate hospitality to a non-Christian visitor. Being nice, loving, warm, and friendly isn’t the same thing as being hospitable. For instance, does your church bulletin use any of the following words: Invocation Benediction Doxology Prayer Response Pastoral Prayer Hymn Offering Introit Prelude Postlude or a host of others) If […]
Is Your Church Really a Light On the Hill?
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 This is one of those y’all commands – a command given not to an individual, but to the church, the community, the ekklessia (Greek you=2nd person plural, that is “y’all”). […]
Thanksgiving Reclaimed
As church leaders there are a few holidays that must be observed faithfully and treated with the utmost respect they deserve. There is Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then there is Easter, the day we recognize Jesus’ resurrection three days after being crucified. These are momentous Christian […]
If You’ve Got to Herd Cats
You’ll Need a Big Mouse It’s been six years in the creating, but it finally made it to print. Written by church consultant, pastor, and author Bill Tenny-Brittian, Big Mouse is the adventure of Pastor Kent Clark, a not-so-super pastor who’s been called to the Springfield Community Church. It’s a great church. It’s a great […]