Recently I’m running into a lot of writers who are asking the question “If we all serve the same God, why is Christianity growing all over the world except Europe and the U.S.?” I find that am important question. The problem is most of the answers I’m seeing deal with fringe issues and don’t […]
10 is Better than 1
I assume that all of us would agree that ten new Christians is better than one new Christian. Right? I think we would also all agree that ten times ten is even better than ten when it comes to the number of people our churches are reaching. Right? And I’m […]
Recently, I heard the pastor of a smaller church bemoaning the Sunday morning competition with the local sports teams. He was asking whether or not the church could even compete in today’s culture.
Frankly, the only smart way to compete is to compete to win – and that begins by being brutally honest with what […]
Over the years I’ve seen pastors make the same mistakes over and over. Every time I see these mistakes I can almost bet their church is declining. So I thought I would share with you the six most common mistakes I see pastors doing and what to do about it.
Mistake Number One: Not making […]
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 […]
Effective church leadership is the most glamourless, thankless, and frustrating job on the planet.
I make that emphatic statement based on two observations. First, I’m unaware of any other sector, profit or non-profit, that is seeing 85 percent of all operation centers facing serious decline – and the leaders of course are shouldered with the […]
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 […]
I used to fish a lot. And one of the things I had to learn was to fish where there were fish. That makes sense. But to accomplish that I had to learn how to think like a fish. Fish don’t think, but if they did they wouldn’t think the way we do. If […]
These verses, 6 and 15, frame a directive of what to do with those who are literally busybodies, people who have nothing better to do than make trouble. Apparently, the Thessalonian church had as high of a mercy gift as churches today. They were tolerating bad behaviors from their members and Paul says, “Stop it!”
There […]
1 Thessalonians 1:6–8
You became imitators of us and of the Lord … And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you … your faith has become known everywhere.
The Thessalonian church had, at least ostensibly, become models of a functional church. They became […]
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery