Tag «Discipleship»

The First Seven Things to Do When a Child Accepts Christ in Your Church

A child in your church decides to follow Christ. There is no greater decision! Now what? As a pastor, I’ve sat with numerous parents over the years and walked through the next steps. These conversations are some of the most rewarding in ministry! Only recently did I sit down and create a checklist of items….

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7 Signs You May be Losing Your Love for Your Church . . . and What to Do about It

It happens. Even those who deeply love their local congregation sometimes go through situations and circumstances that test that love. In some cases, that love slowly erodes—almost imperceptibly. Here are some signs you might be losing your love: 1. Your enthusiasm for gathering with the congregation is waning. There was a time when you excitedly…

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Seven Considerations If You Are a Church Member Planning on Leaving Your Church

You’ve been with your church for a while now. Something is now urging you to leave the church. We will not get into evaluating your reasons. Let’s just say you have made the decision, or you are close to making that decision. Let’s assume you are not moving to another location. You are leaving your…

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How Your Church Can Help the Overlooked Children Affected by Abuse and Neglect

The turning point for me occurred at a funeral. I was holding a four-year-old child I did not know. His mother had passed away after overdosing on a dangerous mix of fentanyl and cocaine. The family contacted our church and asked for a pastor to officiate the funeral. I’ll never forget the young boy’s words….

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One of the Most Powerful Ways to Revitalize Your Church that Almost No One Does

Prayer walking can revitalize a church. At Church Answers, we’ve heard some incredible stories of how a church started a prayer walking ministry and experienced revitalization. The problem is not enough churches are emphasizing this spiritual discipline. Those that do are seeing powerful results. What is prayer walking? The concept is simple and can be…

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A Dog, a Confession, and a Prayer Request

After almost 32 years of marriage, my wife and I adopted a rescue dog a couple weeks ago. I grew up with dogs, but Pam has never been around a dog for any length of time. Still, though, we took the plunge after hosting/fostering this dog for three weekends so he could get acclimated to…

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The Most Important Leadership Tool

Who or what do you lead? There are books, conferences, blogs, podcasts, and masterclasses on how to be a better leader, but we often forget that the person we lead first and most is the one in the mirror. It is easy to spend all of our time trying to figure out the next strategy…

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Five Ways to Honor the Past While Not Losing the Future

I once caught a deacon throwing choir robes out of the second-story window into a giant fire on the ground below. “What’s going on?” “Fire hazard.” By the look and smell of the robes, I agreed and went about my business. There were probably one hundred burning robes in the fire—enough for every person in…

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How to Evaluate Your Church’s Discipleship Program

*This article is an excerpt from Disciple: How to Create a Community That Develops Passionate and Healthy Followers of Jesus. Some months ago, I published the book Disciple: How to Create a Community that Develops Passionate and Healthy Followers of Jesus. In that book, I point out that many churches that think they’re disciplemaking churches…

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What Does it Mean to Be Fully Committed to God?

This is a question I’ve been pondering over quite often lately. What does it actually look like to be fully committed to God? A fully devoted disciple of Christ? To be “all in”? I’ve had to honestly own up to the fact that my an…