Tag «Health & Metrics»

7 Reasons Why Pastoral Leadership is So Critical to Producing an Evangelistic Church

If you’ve read much of what I write, you’ve heard me say at some point, “I’ve never seen a strongly evangelistic church without a strongly evangelistic pastor leading them.” I stand by that statement after more than 25 years of evaluating churches. Here’s why I think pastoral leadership is so critical in this task: A…

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A Simple Formula to Determine If Your Church Members Are Too Old

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…

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Evangelicalism Is Not Dying Among Younger Generations (The Future May Not Be So Grim)

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…

An Easy Formula to Evaluate Your Church’s Growth (or Decline)

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…

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The One Unexpected Question That Reveals the Heart of Your Church

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…

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The Death of the Baby Boomers: 7 Things That Will Take Place in Your Church (A Church Answers Research Article)

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…

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The CHRINO: Christian in Name Only

Nearly seven out of ten (69%, Cultural Research Center) of American adults self-identify as a Christian. With an adult population (18 years and older) of 259 million people (census.gov), that means there are 179 million people in the U. S. who self-identify as a Christian. 179 million. That’s a lot of people. But how many…

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A Simple Strategy for Getting Your Church to Tell Their Salvation Story

More than one study has shown that few believers share the gospel with non-believers. Over the years as I have taught pastors, interviewed church members and staff, and worked with church consultations, I’ve recognized these obstacles to doing evang…

The Moribund Church

We’ve done extensive research and provided a number of resources on churches that have died. The reason we’ve conducted these “autopsies” on deceased churches is to learn from them. Why did they die? What warning signs did they have? What intervention might have proved fruitful? We have extended our research on autopsies to moribund churches….

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A Surprising First Step, Pastors, toward Strengthening Your Evangelism

Over more than forty years of ministry, I’ve learned that not many Christians share their faith on a regular basis. In fact, I know few pastors who evangelize, either. So, I agree with Thom Rainer that “evangelism is dead or dying in most American churches.” I also strongly affirm Thom’s statement that “an evangelistic church…

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