Is It Time to Drop the Requirement?

I’ve been watching the trend escalate for the past decade. For centuries, it has been the practice of non-mainline groups. But for the last couple of decades its has been a rising factor in thriving churches.

I’m talking about the rise and effectiveness of non-seminary trained pastors.  It used to be that pastors like enormously […]

Mission Statements

Five good books for creating a Mission Statement:

The Path, by Laurie Beth Jones, New York, NY, Hyperion, 1996Managing By Values, by Ken Blanchard and Michael O’Connor, San Francisco, Berrett- Koehler Publishers, 1997****Building A Shared Vision, C. Patrick Lewis, Portland, OR,     Productivity Press, 1997Built to Last, James Collins, and Jerry Porras, Harper     Business, 1997Clarifying our […]

Does Your Church Embrace Systemic Mediocrity?

I was having a conversation with a church’s staff members the other day and mentioned that the six words church leaders should dread are, “That won’t happen again, will it?” As in, if that continues then we’re going to have to make a change by getting someone who will ensure “that” doesn’t happen again.

Related: […]

Prayvangelism

I spent the last week at a mainline’s church planter and church transformation training event. I wish I could say I was surprised at how great the training was. I wish. But the fact is, the training was long on the right theology and light on practicalities like the importance of evangelism in starting […]

Kick Start Growth

The majority of churches in North America have been experiencing over a decade of decline or plateau. Often, common sense prevails and church leaders will endeavor to put church growth plans into place that will grow their church on a slow, and yet consistent, basis. The fact is, though, churches rarely grow slowly and […]

Is House Church Real Church?

By Bill Tenny-Brittian

One of my biggest concerns about my House Church colleagues in other networks is that they tend to write articles, columns, and books on how the more established building-based churches are out of touch with God’s vision for the church and how the House Church is really the only church God had in mind.  […]

Five Things I Wish Every Small Group Leader Knew

By Bill Tenny-Brittian

In the North American House Church Movement there are all kinds of small group and House Church leaders, but we can pretty well divide them into two groups: Those with formal training (Bible college or seminary) and those without.  So far, in my experience and study, the ones without have far less […]

Developing the Leaders Under Your Nose

I suppose it’s out there somewhere, but I’ve never found it: the church that has more leaders than it knows what to do with. In fact, most churches I visit have a leadership vacuum. There appears to be more ministries and missions than there are dedicated disciples willing to lead them.

How can your church […]

“Volunteer” is a Dirty Word

By Bill Easum

The words we use denote who we are and how we view the world. Change some of the words you use and you’re on the way to changing the system.

That’s why I hate the word “volunteer.”  To me the word has come to mean “I’ll give you what I want to give […]