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Understanding the Role of Your Pastor

The “golden years” of the church, for many key leaders in churches across the US, were the 1950s. Back then “everyone” went to church – and if someone didn’t go to church, they knew they should! Back then, the pastor didn’t get caught up with trying to reach one generation or another. Everyone “liked” […]

Don’t Bet On It … Or Do

I’m not much of a bettin’ kind of guy. I played the ponies once in the UK … I won and decided to keep my winnings and never played again. Did the same at a casino playing the slots. I won and walked away. When it comes to gambling, I’m a been there, done […]

Back to Basics: Build Relationships

The second step in Jesus’ 5 step exponential church growth model is to build relationships (step 1 is to get some attention and increase your first-time visitor count).

This is part 2 of a five part series.

Most, but certainly not all, churches get a first-time visitor every now and then. And if you’re following the […]

Growth Barriers

Yesterday, I wrote about the three changes every pastor needs to go through when a church moves through a growth barrier.  Although there are many interpretations of what these barriers are in our book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, we dealt with the broad barriers of 100, 200, 500, and 1000 and beyond.  Passing […]

10 Things to Do – Turnaround Mid to Large Sized Church

Recently, I wrote a post about starting a turnaround effort in a small church that’s been in decline for years (Ten Things to Do to Lead a Turnaround). I immediately got requests from church leaders of declining mid-sized and large churches: “What about us? What should we do?”

So, here is a list of things […]

How to Effectively Lead a Staff

This article is a follow up to the previous article on staff management.

Learning how to lead a staff is one of the most important aspects of a pastor’s life if that pastor wants to be an effective leader. Every study shows that the vast majority of churches grow based on their leader and how […]

Five Things You’re Doing That Won’t Grow Your Church

The church pastor was flummoxed. He had no idea why his church wasn’t growing. He was doing lots of stuff right, but he just couldn’t get any traction. So he called me. After a lengthy conversation, I helped him identify five things he was spending a lot of his time on that weren’t growing […]

The Failure of Recycling Christians

I live in Missouri, but I’m a Seattle-ite at heart. One of the big cultural differences between the two is their attitude toward recycling. I’m used to looking at every piece of trash and doing the gymnastics to see if there’s a new use for it. Failing that, I move on to deciding which […]

Church in the Post-Pandemic World

The other day, ECG Partner Scott Musselman shot me a note about something I’d written that referenced the post-pandemic church. He said that his church wasn’t post-pandemic yet! And of course he’s completely correct – the Great Pandemic of 2020 hasn’t given up its ghost and doesn’t seem like it will any time soon. […]