Tag «worship»

Online Worship Services Appeal to Many, but In-Person Remains More Popular

A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that about a quarter of U.S. adults regularly watch religious services online or on TV, and most of them are highly satisfied with the experience. At the same time, Americans tend to give even higher marks to worshipping together in person. And those who do both — […]

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4 Reasons Why It Matters that Church Leaders are Praying Leaders

I am convinced that prayer is the most difficult spiritual discipline to develop—even for church leaders. Prayer assumes that we live in dependence on God, and I fear many of us are less dependent than we might admit. Prayer is our recourse for a problem more than an expression of a relationship with God. It…

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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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Why Small Congregation Worship Matters

Teresa Stewart has faith in the future of small congregations because she has faith in a God who shows up even in small and forgotten places. She believes that small churches are critical learning laboratories as the church navigates a future far too complex for one-size-fits-all patterns of ministry. Let’s start with this fundamental agreement […]

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How to Keep Preaching Fresh: An In-Depth Interview with Teresa Fry Brown

How can preachers keep their preaching fresh? Doug Powe of the Lewis Center staff interviews Professor of Preaching, Teresa Fry Brown about preaching familiar texts for different generations, preaching for in person and digital audiences, as well as sermon preparation for bivocational pastors. Listen to this interview, watch the interview video on YouTube, or continue reading. […]

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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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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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Why Limit the Celebration of Easter to Just One Sunday?

David Manner says that many churches attract new attendees with the lure of Easter but then quickly leave the subject. He asks, if Easter really is the foundation of our faith, why do we limit its celebration to just one Sunday? This article was originally published March 29, 2022. We’ve all seen social media hyperlinks […]

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Pre-Pandemic Worship Attendance: Not a Helpful Measure

Many churches today lament worship attendance numbers that have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Lovett H. Weems Jr. says this is an unhelpful comparison. He recommends that churches turn their attention away from the past and focus on a bold and future-oriented goal to reach new people in your community. Churches continue to celebrate […]

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