Tag «Church Answers»

5 Surprising Approaches Churches Are Using to Increase Attendance

I like outliers. Outliers are, by their definition, exceptions to the rule. They are different from others. Our Church Answers team closely watches church attendance, especially attendance since the pandemic. Most churches had a decline in attendance. Since many of these congregations are intentional about recovering from the decreases, we note what approaches these churches take. …

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Seven Tips to Make Sermon Points More Memorable

My wife recently found a box of old church bulletins with notes from my previous sermons. She is a prodigious note-taker. These old bulletins contained thousands of sermon points. How many of them did she remember? I didn’t ask. Only a few congregants will remember specific points I make in a sermon several years afterward….

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The ONE Big Change Taking Place in Church Hiring Practices (and It’s Under the Radar)

It is a movement. It is an undeniable movement. In the midst of all the changes taking place in churches, this one factor is rarely mentioned. For sure, a lot of the focus has been on change in churches since COVID. I get that. The pandemic and quarantine changed much of society including churches. That…

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Why Your Church Needs More (Often) Announcements in Worship

Most of us have entered the twilight zone of worship announcements at some point. A person approaches you with awkward determination three minutes before the start of a worship service. A piece of paper unfolds multiple times. If there was a way to collect all these scraps of paper, we pastors could create an epic…

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The Cincinnati Bengals . . . and Discipleship

I realize this post is an unusual one for me, but I trust it makes sense at the end. I started writing this post on a plane going from Atlanta to Cincinnati to speak in a church meeting Sunday and Monday. As a native of Cincinnati and a life-long fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, I…

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When Church Members Are a Blessed Exit: 5 Thoughts

Perhaps one of the most under-reported issues about the post-pandemic church is how some churches are doing better after the departure of some church members. We know that about 20 percent of active church attendees stopped attending during the pandemic and have not returned. What we rarely hear is that some of those departures actually…

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Navigating Criticism with Grace: A Guide for Women Leaders

Criticism is an inevitable aspect of leadership, and as a woman in a leadership role, you may encounter unique challenges and expectations. How you handle criticism can profoundly impact your growth and effectiveness as a leader. Whether it is an e-mail from a member sharing their opinions on room temperature and the selection of snacks…

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The One Thing that Solves Most Church Problems (Only 1% of Churches Actually Do This)

Church health will not improve until ongoing evangelism returns. A recent Church Answers poll found that only 1% of churches have an ongoing evangelism effort. This finding corroborated a more extensive longitudinal study we’ve been conducting since 1996, in which the lowest church health score across denominations is in the category of evangelism. The trend…

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Is Passing the Offering Plate Dead? 7 Thoughts

For hundreds of thousands of churches, the tradition stood the test of time. The majority of churches passed the offering plate (or some type of receptacle) during a designated time of the worship service typically called “the offertory.” There is no doubt that the number of churches passing the offering plate has decreased dramatically in…

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Dispelling Four Common (and Unhelpful) Myths about Neighborhood Churches

“There’s a church on every corner in that community!” I’ve heard this comment many times over the years. In most cases, the tone indicates a level of disdain. It’s understandable. Church buildings seem to be everywhere, while God’s mission seems to be nowhere. But I don’t believe we need to give up on these churches….

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