Tag «Membership & Assimilation»

Why Your Congregation Is Likely More Optimistic about the Future Than You Realize

Over 80% of churchgoers predict a promising future for their churches. Is this figure what you would expect? Until I saw the research, I would not have guessed optimism was so high among churchgoers. Where did this statistic originate? The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) conducted a national survey in August 2022 of almost 6,000…

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This Book Changed My Life 10 Years Ago

It was ten years ago that I did something I had never done before. I turned a short blog post into a book. Much to my joy and surprise, the book became one of the bestsellers in its genre. It stayed at number one on the bestselling list for quite a while. Now, nearly two…

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The Top Ten Next Steps for New Church Members

Congratulations! You joined a church. Now what? While every church has a different procedure for church membership, there are some simple things you can do to honor God in your decision. These items apply to everyone. First, read your Bible every day. A national research study revealed something remarkable. The number one way people grow…

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55% Younger Adults Prefer Smaller Churches

It’s a massive change that few church leaders are noticing. For decades, the conventional wisdom was simple: younger generations flocked to bigger churches with contemporary music, better tech, and full-service programming. That assumption may now b…

Five Metaphors That Describe Why In-Person Attendance at Churches Will Grow in Importance

You’ve heard a lot about how the pandemic hurt church attendance. Yeah. Me too. It’s true, but it’s becoming a bit tiresome. We can watch online. We can study the Bible digitally. “Going to church” is no longer needed. Yep, I’ve heard them too. How many times have we heard the overused pseudo-explanation, “the church…

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The One Big Reason Church Attendance Is Declining (and Most Church Leaders Are Unaware)

This one data point might be the most important information on the church and faith I have heard this year. We at Church Answers have done a pretty good job of explaining the “what” of attendance decline: the frequency of church attendance has declined, and people have simply left the church altogether. What we have…

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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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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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