Tag «Membership & Assimilation»

Hymns, Hymnody, and Hymnals: Five Significant Trends

Are the worship wars over? While the answer is not definitive, we see signs that the post-quarantine world may include an unexpected benefit: worship wars are waning. While our evidence is anecdotal at this point, it is still worth looking at five significant trends that have developed or accelerated since the pandemic quarantine. 1. More…

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A Thought on Leaders Making Memories

I don’t often write about my story, but this topic—a topic I trust you will see relates to Christian leadership—was on my heart this past week as we celebrated Father’s Day. My first memory is being a frightened three-year old as my father wrecked our home in a fit of anger. Now almost sixty years…

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6 Times to Talk to Your Guests

Let’s start with the basics: we should aim to talk to our guests all the time. When they show up on the weekend, they are our honored guests (that’s why we call ’em guests, and not the V-word). But there are strategic times during the worship service when we should especially address our guests. When…

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The Five Stages of a Church Dropout: From Highly Committed to Goners

It’s painful enough to lose any church members, but it is particularly painful when the church member was highly committed. We call these dropouts “Goners,” because they were once one of your best church members. Now they are gone. It has been both painful and amazing to see the consistency in the patterns the Goners…

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Avoid Bringing This Leadership Baggage into Your Church

God created leadership for the church. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, and He sets aside other shepherds to lead the church by serving under Him. Members of the church are to follow those who keep watch over their spiritual development. Additionally, these leaders should not abuse their authority but rather lead by example. This relationship…

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How We Reignited a Women’s Ministry in our Church

When my husband and I first arrived at our church in 2017 and he began to serve as lead pastor, I was approached by a number of women who wanted to talk about “women’s ministry.” I quickly learned that the definition of this term varied widely. It was obvious that our church was full of…

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7 Things that Happen when Church Leaders Don’t Pray Much

My personal experience and anecdotal studies have shown that prayer is the most difficult spiritual discipline for many believers. It assumes dependence on God, and we simply don’t default in that direction; we default into independence and self-dependence even when we don’t want to. Here are some things that happen, though, when we church leaders…

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A Giant Step in Bible Accessibility

Approximately 12 million people over the age of 40 in the US have vision impairment. Glasses or contacts can help many in that group, but of those 12 million people, 4.2 million have uncorrectable vision and 1.02 million are blind. That is a significant portion of the population that is unable to read a traditional…

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Leading Others When They Are Frustrated and Angry with the Church

Frustration can raise stress levels. Anger can leave you and others on edge. While neither frustration nor anger are inherently sinful, both raise the temperature in the room. Both are also inevitable. People will become frustrated and angry. Since these two emotions are unavoidable, how do you lead those who are frustrated and angry in…

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7 Church Practices We Will Be Following in 2022

I recently shared my annual trends report for churches as we head into 2022. In this article, I look at seven church practices that may emerge into major trends. With each church practice, I provide you with a link or an example if you desire to dig more deeply. Some of these resources are provided…

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