Tag «Grow»

Teen Ministry: Why Their Questions Matter and Why We Should be Prepared to Answer

The foundations of teen identity are shaken and eroded by the simple yet complex question, “Who are you?” Teens are asked this question in every social interaction, whether at school, in public, or even through social media. The question of who they are is asked by judgmental eyes assessing what they wear, through passive-aggressive comments…

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The Best Metric to Determine Evangelistic Health in Your Church

I fear too many churches are sitting still and becoming apathetic with evangelism. Unfortunately, this apathy means fewer people are hearing the gospel. It’s time to move outward again. The Conversion Ratio It’s helpful to diagnose the degree of the problem in your church. One way of determining evangelistic health is through a metric called…

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How to Throw Away Accumulated Junk in Your Church

You might be surprised that this issue really exists in churches. It really does in a lot of churches. In fact, it is so bad in many churches that the junk takes up valuable room for ministry, small groups, and offices. In our consultations with churches, we often ask them where they keep their donated…

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Five Essential Accountability Standards for Pastors and Paid Church Staff

Accountability is the acceptance of responsibility for your actions. But what does this acceptance look like with paid church staff? It’s more than theology. For example, a church leader may believe in the biblical nature of accountability but not follow through, like a person who believes exercise is good for the body but never goes…

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Why I’m Excited about “THE HOPE INITIATIVE”

If you haven’t checked out The Hope Initiative, that will begin next month, I encourage you to do so. Here’s why: First, it’s a strategy focused on getting believers re-focused on the Great Commission in their community. Most churches—including those started with an outward focus—eventually turn inward. This strategy seeks to reverse that direction in…

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Don’t Divorce Christ

I love the local church. From Acts 2 to Revelation 3, the Bible is about the local church, written to the local church, or written in the context of the local church. God gave us the local church as his plan A for his mission on earth, and he did not give us a plan…

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Shifting Your Church Out of Survival Mode and into Hopeful Optimism

Many churches are barely hanging on, but there is hope. Churches are simultaneously both fragile and resilient. They hang on by their fingernails, but those fingernails are surprisingly strong. Every Sunday seems to have the potential to be the last one. Yet the same church survives year after year, decade after decade. Struggling churches tend…

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The Top Three Ways Lead Pastors Can Serve the Second Chair

The second chair position is paradoxical for two reasons. First, a second chair involves the tension of submitting as a subordinate to the first chair while at the same time leading with a high level of influence. Second chairs maintain a dependence on the first chair while at the same time managing the significant amounts…

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5 Reasons Why Prayer Must Accompany Evangelism

In June of this year, our Church Answers team will be releasing “The Hope Initiative,” a simple, reproducible strategy utilizing this tool by Thom Rainer to turn a church outward toward its community. One of the reasons I love this strategy is that it clearly connects prayer with evangelism. Many evangelism tools only assume prayer…

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The Life Cycle of a Pastor (Updated)

For almost 30 years, we have tracked the tenure of pastors. Though some of the categories are the same, the time periods and the descriptions of the periods continue to evolve. We are now in a post-pandemic, post-Christian era. The changes are significant. Of course, these cycles are generalizations. There will always be exceptions and…

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