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 […]

No One Left Behind

I was watching one of “those” movies the other day. In this case, the space ships were flying and the ground troops were storming the asteroid. Suddenly reinforcements for the axis of evil show up and the good guys have to regroup and retreat to fight another day. Except one of the ground troops […]

Why Don’t People Invite Their Friends?

In these COVID times (and honestly, pre-COVID times), it’s become very clear that church members aren’t inviting their friends (or anyone else) to join them for worship. A recent poll by the Barna Group revealed that 60 percent of people will not invite people to attend worship with them online (or Share or Like […]

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 […]

Funeral of Billy Graham: And Why Churches are Dying

Just finished watching the funeral of Billy Graham. It was a simple yet glorious send off that focused on Jesus not Billy.

And it reminded me of why so many of our churches are dying.

Franklin Graham gave the closing eulogy. Over and over he issued an invitation for people to accept Jesus as their savior, […]

Christmas Eve on Sunday

Christmas Eve, the most important time of the year to reach the unchurched (yes, it’s more important than Easter these days), is fast approaching and far too many pastors will be enticed by their church leaders to make one of the most fatal mistakes possible. And this year that enticement will be even more […]

Where I Am In Life and the Most Important Lesson I’ve Learned

Several friends have emailed me recently about my station in life and what my plans are for the future. Those who know me well know my health is fair for a 78 year old and that I’m finding it hard to sit on planes for very long (I’ve only been on a plane three […]

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 […]

Reaching Millennials

Remember when it was all the rage in mainline churches to write and preach about how different it was to try to reach Baby Boomers, then Gen Xers? Now we are faced with the same challenge to reach Millennials. It seems that things never change for mainliners – we are always behind the curve, […]