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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….
The post Seven Tips to Make Sermon Points More Memorable appeared first on Church Answers.
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…
The post Why Your Church Needs More (Often) Announcements in Worship appeared first on Church Answers.
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…
The post The Cincinnati Bengals . . . and Discipleship appeared first on Church Answers.
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…
The post The One Thing that Solves Most Church Problems (Only 1% of Churches Actually Do This) appeared first on Church Answers.
I’ve had the privilege of learning from Christian leaders—clergy and laity alike—for almost 50 years. As a seminary professor who teaches courses in leadership, I pay attention when I see leaders who seem uniquely gifted. I offer this list of characteristics today (1) to push myself to evaluate my own life and (2) to challenge…
The post 6 Unique Characteristics of the Best Christian Leaders I’ve Known appeared first on Church Answers.
Throughout my teens, twenties, and thirties, I always had several Bibles close at hand—yet I rarely remember picking any of them up unless I was walking out the door to go to church. Even though I always sensed there was something special about the Bible, it wasn’t until God allowed me to reach the end…
The post Why Discipleship Matters appeared first on Church Answers.
When the church causes hurt, it pollutes God’s calling and creates a toxicity that works against the gospel. The goal is to minimize church hurt and maximize church unity. Here is reality. Something will happen in almost every church because ministry includes people. In some cases, the pastor is the cause of the hurt. In…
The post How to Recover from a Toxic Church and Bounce Back Even Better appeared first on Church Answers.
I am close to finishing my second 30-day round of The Hope Initiative. It is a simple process of praying, studying Scripture, and going in one form or another. It is simple obedience to the Great Commission. May I share with you three lessons I have learned about myself in each of these 30-day periods?…
The post Uber Evangelism: Three Lessons appeared first on Church Answers.
Once a church reaches two thousand in weekly attendance, its sheer size becomes a self-generating attraction. Massive facilities, a sprawling campus, and numerous attendees give these large congregations more prominence than other churches. Megachurches receive more media attention than smaller churches. Their physical campuses can dominate their surrounding community. Megachurch pastors tend to have charisma,…
The post The Megachurch Movement Is Fading. What’s Next? appeared first on Church Answers.
The fall season brings with it not only colorful foliage and cozy cardigan weather but also the exciting opportunity for women to delve deeply into the Word of God. It’s a season of kick-starting various Bible studies, whether within church settings, homes, or workplace break rooms. If you’re considering leading your first women’s Bible study,…
The post Launching a Transformative Bible Study for Women: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Church Answers.