Three Common Contagious Church Viruses: Part 1

“The Church Doctor will see you now.” The church had a bit of grimace on her face, but she shuffled in and hopped up onto the paper-covered examination table.

“Tell me,” the doctor said. “What seems to be ailing you?”

The church shared her symptoms. Lethargy. Uncontrollable membership loss. And an unmistakeable rumbly in her […]

Location, Location, Location

For the week of February 21, 2005

 

Location, Location, Location

By: Tom Bandy

You’ve seen the real estate ads emphasizing the importance of having a home close to all the conveniences of school, shopping, work, and leisure. The same applies to the church. Your church building was originally constructed on your site because at the time it […]

Throw Off What Hinders Your Church

I was reading an article about Alexander the Great whose troops after many victorious battles looked like they were about to be defeated. His soldiers had taken so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted down and were losing their effectiveness in combat.

Alexander commanded that all the spoils of war […]

Go for the Gold

This week, thousands of people have gathered in Tokyo and millions of others from around the world will watch great athletes from over 200 countries compete for gold medals in the Olympic games. Years of hard work, dedication, and desire are put to the ultimate test in the Summer Olympics.

Imagine if you saw […]

Apprenticing Future Leaders

When it comes to discipleship, those of us called to do ministry in the Western Hemisphere are encumbered with what I call a “content fetish.” We have been consumed with focusing on content as if we could teach discipleship.  All we need to do is get our people into a classroom, teach them how to […]

Church Growth Failure

Some of you may remember the Church Growth Movement of the sixties and seventies. Great leaders such as Donald McGavran and Win Arn led the movement and soon every church in town was running programs like Bring a Friend Sunday and doing follow-up with visitors. Every time you turned around, there was a new […]

Four Reasons for Multiple Services

In the January, 1991 issue of GROWING CHURCHES John Vaughan pointed out that most growing churches are multi-congregational churches. An estimated eighty five percent of fast growing churches are in multiple services on Sunday, some even have Saturday night services.(1)

Ours is one of those churches. We have recently started our sixth and seventh weekend service. The […]

Remember

I’m posting this blog on September 11th, the day Americans, if not most of the world, are remembering the lives lost because of the airplanes that were hijacked by Islamic terrorists and intentionally crashed into the world trade center, the pentagon, and the one that was ditched into a field in Pennsylvania.

I am also […]

A Church for Every Pastor … and a Pastor for Every Church

I’ve been working with churches and pastors now for more than two decades. During that time I’ve come to know a lot of churches and a lot of pastors. Recently, though, I’ve come to the conclusion that when a church is “looking” to call a pastor, or if a judicatory is looking for a […]