According to Thom Rainer “Over one-half of pastors leave a church before their fourth anniversary. And our research shows that the time of greatest fruit in a pastor’s ministry does not begin until somewhere around years five to seven.” In…
The Upward Direction in Discipleship
A common definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. If that is true, then church leaders in churches of every size often demonstrate a little bit of insanity.
You have seen the scenario played out. Leadership in a church becomes concerned about some aspect of church life. They go looking for the program that will bring new life to that area. They believe that there is a program for every aspect of church life. They just have to find the right one.
The First Step in Developing a Small Healthy Church
An excellent blog that every small-church leader should have on his bookmark list is written by Karl Vaters on his New Small Church website. One of his best entries is entitled “The Essential First Step to Having a Healthy Small Church. The great thing about this essential first step is that it is something that every church can do.
Comfortable Christians or Radical Disciples
Since my blog entry last week in which I suggested that church health rather than church size was what we need to strive for, I have had several people ask me the same question. What constitutes “church health”? Great question.…
The Danger of Mega-Church Conferences
A friend recently sent me a link to an interview with Ed Stetzer in which he made a rather startling statement that has been on my mind ever since I head it. He was speaking at a pastors’ conference at…
Church size isn’t the issue. Church health is.
Can a mega-church be unhealthy? Several decades ago I read a book written by Dr. Joel Gregory entitled Too Great a Temptation; The Seductive Power of America’s Super Church. It was the story of Dr. Gregory’s short term as pastor…
Why a blog for small-church leaders?
In this first edition of a Small Church Connections blog I thought that it would be appropriate to answer the question: Why am I concerned about small churches. There are many reasons but I want to share three that together…
Lack of resources
As I mentioned in my last blog post there are two questions that I love to ask small-church leaders. Question # 1 What is the greatest strength of your church? Answer # 1 The answer always has something to do…
Relationships
When talking with small-church leaders either in a group or as individuals, I have two questions that I love to ask. What is the greatest strength of your church? What is the greatest frustration for your church? I will deal…