September 2015
There are two groups of people who don’t attend church.
Those who used to attend, but have left. And those who have never attended.
Both segments are growing in western society, but the largest segment has always been those who have never been regular attenders. ...
I’ve pastored three small churches in 30 years of pastoral ministry.
Five years at a tiny chapel in the redwoods that grew from a dozen to 50.
Less than two years at a church of around 120.
Twenty-three years and counting at a church that grew from less than 35 ...
Are you a small church pastor?
Seems like an easy question, right? But it doesn’t have an easy answer.
Many small church pastors don’t know they’re small church pastors. I’ll tell you why in a minute.
But first, here’s a short quiz you ...
When you hear the word “men” in a news story, what comes to mind? I picture the male half of the population. I think we all do, because that’s what it means.
It’s the same in a sermon. When we hear the word “men,” most people think "male." ...
The gospel is enough.
It has always been enough. It will always be enough.
If we remove anything from it, it's not the gospel any more. If we add anything to it, we don't enhance it, we dilute it.
That’s why almost every young minister has been implored by an older ...
I wish there were more artists in the church.
No, not painters and sculptors. Actually, yes, those too.
Mostly I wish there were more church leaders who saw the art in their ministry.
Church leaders who put the same kind of passion and creativity into their calling ...
Do all healthy things grow? Yes.
Do all healthy churches become big churches? No.
But many of us have been ministering under that false assumption. We've been told there’s one set of ingredients. Use them to become a healthy church and it will inevitably become ...
“Most churches will never be mega, because you can't build megachurches on regular givers alone. You need some huge donors. And there’s not one pastor in a million who can successfully do The Big Ask. Who can put their arm around the shoulder of a wealthy donor ...
There's a disease infecting many of our churches. I call it Cool Church Cancer.
It's a progressive disease that happens in three steps:
Step 1: A cool, new church comes to town. Or a cool, new pastor. Step 2: Some people leave our church for the cool church. Step ...
When did you first hear about Ashley Madison?
If you're like most people, it was in the past month as the email hacking scandal was breaking.
Not me. I’ve known about Ashley Madison for a couple of years. Where did I learn about the notorious website for people ...
Why bother trying to resurrect an old, dying church?
I’ve heard that question a lot.
There was a time when it seemed like every pastor I went to Bible college with was following church growth principles and starting new churches. In a few years they were buying ...
There are broken churches in the world. Broken churches with failing pastors.
Most of those churches are small. Thankfully. But that’s just because 90 percent of all churches in the world are small.
So yes, there are good reasons for failing pastors to leave failing churches. ...
AWESOME /ˈôsəm/ (Adjective) Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.
I’ve had it with people trying to tell me how awesome I am. Especially fellow pastors.
We should know better.
I’m not sure exactly when ...