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I know. I wrote a provocative title for this article. I changed it several times, but I eventually came back to it. The obvious question is: are the members too old for what? My response is another question, but it could still lack clarity. Are they too old for the church to continue on a…
The post A Simple Formula to Determine If Your Church Members Are Too Old appeared first on Church Answers.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church in the 1990s. I was about as evangelical as I could be without knowing what that term meant. I had a closet full of Christian t-shirts, a shelf full of books that I had purchased from Daystar Christian Books in…
You’ve likely heard of decision fatigue, when someone makes several decisions in a short amount of time and then struggles to make additional decisions. However, compassion fatigue among pastors may be more prevalent. Compassion fatigue is an excessive weariness due to the cumulative effect of caring for, listening to, and helping people with emotional and…
The post How Pastors Get Compassion Fatigue (Plus Ways to Overcome It) appeared first on Church Answers.
I get it. Numbers are not everything. Indeed, numbers are not the most important thing. But a balanced use of numbers can be helpful. For example, I am frequently asked if churches are growing or declining in the United States since the 2020 pandemic. Church leaders have also asked me how they can evaluate their…
The post An Easy Formula to Evaluate Your Church’s Growth (or Decline) appeared first on Church Answers.
I am a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary who also works with the Church Answers team. My life is wrapped around training church leaders. I love what I do, especially when I get to interact with pastors. Church Answers, of course, offers several options for further training for church leaders, whether you are a…
The post A Challenge to Pastors and Church Leaders to Consider Further Training appeared first on Church Answers.
At Church Answers, we receive a lot of questions about churches. There are hundreds of daily interactions in our membership forum, Church Answers Central. I also ask many questions when I’m consulting and coaching. Over two decades, I’ve refined the types of questions I ask and the way I ask questions. Some questions don’t elicit…
The post The One Unexpected Question That Reveals the Heart of Your Church appeared first on Church Answers.
The pace of ministry can switch from comfortable to chaotic with one phone call. The daily activities of a pastor are often fragmented. Church work often happens in short conversations and activities—10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. Quick, hopscot…
The grouchy grumbler. The negative naysayer. The gloomy pessimist. Complaining has many forms. Not every complaint is toxic. Sometimes, a complaint is warranted and can help to identify problems. Additionally, everyone needs to vent from time to time. But many churches have at least one person who complains about everything. Constant complaining can easily control…
The post How to Manage a Constant Complainer in the Church appeared first on Church Answers.
It is strange to write about the death of the Baby Boomers because I am one of them. Indeed, this article was a reminder of my own mortality. While the implications of the death of this generation go far beyond church life, we who lead and love churches should prepare for this unavoidable reality. Here…
The post The Death of the Baby Boomers: 7 Things That Will Take Place in Your Church (A Church Answers Research Article) appeared first on Church Answers.
I’m at the point of life where I’m both planning for the future and reflecting on the past. As I think back on 40+ years of ministry, including 14 years of lead pastoring, here is one of my biggest regrets: I did not invest in college students well. We gave a great deal of attention…
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