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If you examine the job descriptions in searches for pastors, associate pastors, and church staff (as we have), you will find (as we did) an absence of expressed interest in character and a profusion of terms connected to skills. Job descriptions, even for senior pastors, have devolved into a can-do list. That is because we…
The post Are You Asking the Character Question about Your Staff? appeared first on Church Answers.
I preached Philippians 1. After standing in the pulpit for a few awkward moments, I said, “Hi.” “Hi.” The congregation responded. It was a Sunday night service on a holiday weekend. My pastor was on vacation. The smaller crowd was the core. They knew what they were getting. I was twenty-three years old. Only now…
The post Reflections on My First Sermon after Twenty Years of Ministry appeared first on Church Answers.
I’m well aware that it’s easy to get focused on numbers when evaluating church growth. Too many church leaders report “butts in the seats” and “bucks in the plate” more than anything else—without really evaluating even those numbers. For example, we might report a significant attendance increase without pointing out that most of that growth…
The post Why We Need to Ask More Numerical Questions about Our Church appeared first on Church Answers.
The issue may be the biggest surprise of my ministry. On the one hand, I am surprised at the decline of evangelism in most churches. But that is not the biggest surprise. The issue that perplexes and surprises me the most is that very few church leaders and members are even acknowledging the death of…
The post The Death of Evangelism: Five Issues We Must Address appeared first on Church Answers.
How big is your church? It’s a common question. The top metric of success in a church is worship attendance. Maybe it shouldn’t be. But average weekly worship attendance is the most common and most touted church health metric. This figure includes children, assumes each person is counted only once, and includes all worship services…
The post Why Your Church Is Larger Than You Realize (And Pastors Are Busier Than Ever) appeared first on Church Answers.
I became fascinated with dead and dying churches about thirty years ago. I know. It’s morbid on my part. My fascination turned into somewhat of an obsession that I wrote a bestselling book on the topic, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, several years ago. It still has robust sales today. It obviously hit a nerve. …
The post Why Your Church Will Die within Five Years appeared first on Church Answers.
It comes in a text message or a phone call. It comes in the middle of the day or it can awaken you in the middle of sleep. It comes loud like a loud and jarring freight train but it can also come as the most deafening silence. “It” is that all-too-familiar feeling of discouragement,…
The post 4 Essential Tools for Navigating Discouragement with Your Husband appeared first on Church Answers.
Every church needs a good set of bylaws. Put simply, the bylaws are written legal documents establishing the governance of a church. Church polity and ecclesiology will have an impact on the contents of bylaws. The size and structure of a church will also affect bylaws. For example, multi-site churches will differ from single-site churches….
The post The Big Warning Signs Your Church Bylaws Are Working Against You and Not for You appeared first on Church Answers.
When I started pastoring more than 40 years ago, most of us called to pastoral ministry wanted to get started on the task quickly. Right or wrong, we typically leapt into ministry as soon as we could. Now, young leaders preparing for ministry are much more inclined to look for an “entry-level” position before stepping…
The post 8 Reasons Potential Pastors Would Rather Begin Ministry with an Internship or Assistant Pastorate appeared first on Church Answers.
Many of you were definitely eager to share your favorite hymns via social media. We had over 2,000 responses when I finally stopped counting the results. I took your responses and compared them to a similar list we compiled ten years ago. There are some differences between the two sets of rankings. The 2013 hymns…
The post Top 25 Hymns: 2023 Versus Ten Years Ago appeared first on Church Answers.