With kids going back to school, now is a great time to think about reaching kids with the gospel of Christ by attracting them to your children’s ministry. I have long believed that attracting young families can be crucial to your church’s growth. I even dedicated a chapter of my new book Church Turnaround […]
Today’s spiritual seekers rarely turn to Christianity or to the church to find the answers they seek because of their past experiences or because of the church’s and faith’s reputation. Too often, spiritual seekers have turned in desperation to the church only to discover the church so embroiled in “business as usual” that there […]
June 2002
This September marks my five year anniversary at Grace Church. God’s Spirit continues to blow on our work. This January we launched our fifth weekend service, the Saddleback model, Celebrate Recovery. With this addition, we are running over 1400 on weekends, plus another 300+ at New Community on Wednesday night. Remember that my […]
I’ve met pastors who want their church to grow but don’t want to be the leader because they don’t want to exercise any power or authority. The problem is, this never works; growth takes a leader who is so convinced of the outcome that he or she influences others to jump on board and […]
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to […]
In today’s fast-paced, distraction-filled world, staying focused on what truly matters is more challenging than ever. As a pastor or church leader, you’re not merely managing a congregation; you’re spearheading a mission—a mission that can’t afford to get derailed by the myriad of “urgent” but ultimately inconsequential tasks that vie for your attention. So, […]
The church growth movement has taken a bad rap the past decade. Many unfair comments have been made in an attempt to either discredit it or make it obsolete. I’m sure there are many reasons for the attempts to either discredit or make the movement obsolete. At worst the attempts were the acts of […]
A client recently posed a staffing question and asked me to address it. “Why should the first hired staff positions be (1) a worship leader for a non-traditional style worship service; and (2) a children’s director?” The answer is as simple as it should be self-evident.
Without a steady influx of young families to the […]
During Advent, I’ve been reading James A. Harnish’s Advent Calendar of Devotions from Abingdon Press. One of the short passages sent my head reeling and my heart racing:
“Jesus was not born in Bethlehem to make the darkness more manageable.”
And yet, this is the very gospel we see presented in church after church after church. […]
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