Stop Inviting People to Church… and Grow Your Church Anyway

Recently, I was working with a church that desperately wants to grow… well, the pastor wants it to grow. He asked his core leaders about their inviting experiences and they all said shades of the same thing: “I’ve invited all my friends to church and they’re not interested.”

Well, duh!!

Unless you happen to be inviting […]

Annual Spiritual Check-up

New Year’s Eve is
an interesting holiday differing from others because it does not commemorate an
event, like Easter or a person like Christmas. New Years is a holiday that
celebrates the inevitability of the passing of time. We make New Years special
only by being reflective of the year that has passed and proactive about what
we want […]

Six Steps to an Effective Easter Follow Up

Easter is probably still your church’s most attended service. Here are six steps to effectively follow up with Easter guests.

*Acknowledge your guest’s presence. Be sure to take time during the service to publicly acknowledge your guests in the service. Do not point them out personally, but let them know that you appreciate their presence. […]

Obsessions That Have to Go for Multiplication to Happen

The more I study the multiplication movement, the more I realize that for it to be successful, several sacred cows will have to be slaughtered. These sacred cows will be much harder for mainline churches to barbeque than for independents. Let me share the biggest ones.
Seminary training.
Most of the training of church planters is […]

But SOMEBODY’s Got to Do It!

Church Work is never ending. There’s always something that needs to get done.

The worship slides need to be updated

The trash needs to be emptied

The newsletter needs to be edited

The plumber needs to be called

The copier needs to be replaced (or updated or unjammed …)

In recent weeks, one pastor or another has given me […]

Youth Aren’t the Future of Your Church

Today, I’m going to address two more of the top six tactical mistakes churches make. Keep in mind these aren’t criticisms. They are, like the blog says, observations. I’ve worked in almost 1,000 churches in the past twenty years. I know that doesn’t make me an expert but it does give some credibility to my observations.
When […]

The Leadership Code

This is an excerpt from our upcoming book, 21st Century Strategies for Church Growth.

One of the serious shortcomings of most centers of higher learning is that they educate the head but fail to train the student. The difference between teaching and training is this: effective teaching focuses on passing information from teacher to student (some call […]

Turn Leaders Into Disciples

Effective Church Leaders are more than skilled volunteers. First and foremost, they should be expected to exhibit conspicuous spiritual practices. The “go to your prayer closet” and “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” has been used as an excuse for shallow discipleship for too long (and both of those […]

Dinosaurs to Rabbits: Chapter 5 – Introduction

In this chapter, we take a look at the principles that will turn a flagging mainline church into a multiplication movement. To be fair, this isn’t a specific recommendation list (“Start three small groups of twelve people each and study thus-and-thus in session one, this-and-that in session two” etc.). You will actually have to […]