Thinking Critically About Media

This is a guest post from Leslie LeSieur who is one of the contributing writers for Net Results. The content was so relevant and spot on, I had to share.

Throughout this last year, my oldest child has often declared “I hate COVID!” or “When will it be over?” I know we can all echo […]

Turnaround Is Messy and Lonely

Turning a church around is a messy and lonely responsibility. I know because I did it three times and each time the early years were depressing enough to damped even the strongest spirit. When you consider where the church is and where it needs to go, attempting a turn around appears to be an […]

Playing Fair When Dancing with Dinosaurs

Before you read this post, please burn into your brain that I was one of the first authors to shoot a warning shot across the bow of the institutional church by questioning its effectiveness and validity. In 1993, I wrote the book Dancing with Dinosaurs, in which I said the present form of institutional […]

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 […]

Does Every Group Need a Leader?

I received an email today from a client asking me if every group, even a micro group, needed an identified leader. Here is my response.It’s been my experience that no group functions at its peak without an identified leader. Even in a group of three or four, someone will emerge as first among equals […]

Church Reputation: The Key to Church Growth and Attracting Visitors

The Transformative Power of Reputation

In the vast landscape of community institutions, churches hold a unique position. They are places of worship, community gathering, and often, outreach. Yet, despite their pivotal role, many churches remain virtually unknown in their communities. The key to bridging this gap and fostering growth? Building a solid reputation.

The Stark Reality: […]

Thinking Like the Unchurched

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 […]

Alternatives for Sunday School

In my book Dancing with Dinosaurs (1993) I predicted the end of adult Sunday school.  Now we are seeing many new Southern Baptist Churches starting with no adult Sunday school and instead small groups that meet in the homes.

Now it’s time to make another prediction which has already begun and will soon be a trend […]

Communication

Communication

By: Tom Bandy

The more worship becomes part of a discipline of spiritual growth, the more churches are finding ways to interface worship with long-distance education. The Uncommon Lectionary, for example, really demands that churches develop websites, blogs, exclusive access email forums … and podcasting.

Podcasting is really an evolution from blogging that embeds an audio […]