First Week of the New Year
No matter what, most resolutions are broken before the second week of January rolls around. Good intentions pave the road to yesterday’s results. If you’re committed to changing things in your church, now’s the time to begin. And it all begins with you, pastor. Here are five-and-a-half practices that guarantee that the end of this […]
Christmas Eve on Sunday
Christmas Eve, the most important time of the year to reach the unchurched (yes, it’s more important than Easter these days), is fast approaching and far too many pastors will be enticed by their church leaders to make one of the most fatal mistakes possible. And this year that enticement will be even more likely […]
The Long Game
One of the most frustrating realities about a turnaround is that it takes more time to get ready for a successful turnaround than it does to grow a church. Let me explain. There are Several Ways to Grow a Church Give me a big enough budget and I can fill your church I don’t care […]
5 Steps for Creating a Hospitality Culture
There is a fundamental flaw in the church of the early 21st century. We have identified it quite clearly, but talk is inadequate. As the old GI Joe commercial went, knowing is half the battle. That’s great, but there’s another half to go. What’s the issue? Commercialization of the Church. How did we go from […]
How Important is Christian Hospitality?
Perhaps you’ve noticed, our culture is often evaluating church in a negative fashion. Church people are perceived as being hypocritical, looking very different in life expression than the claims from faith identity. And, in a related way, the church message is received as irrelevant, out of touch with the reality of how faith intersects our […]
The Consumer Church Metaphor
Church members don’t generally want to have their church compared to a business, but sometimes they just can’t help themselves and they fall into the metaphor themselves. The board meeting had a motion on the floor to upgrade the brand of Sunday morning coffee to one that was more appealing to the younger generation that […]