True City is a movement of churches in the City of Hamilton in which together they seek to work for the good of the city. Their vision statement begins as follows: “TrueCity is a movement of congregations in Hamilton, ON…

Every so often it is fun to quote myself and so the following paragraph comes from my book Reality Check For The Church. “I like to think of fellowship as an investment. As Christians, we invest ourselves (our material resources,…

I love a good book. I especially love a book that changes my life. Of all the books that I have read over the past few years none has changed my life at a deeper level than Integrity by Dr.…

The measure of a healthy church is changed lives. Over the past few decades far too much attention has been given to growing our churches and not nearly enough to growing our people. God’s purpose in every Christian’s life is…

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…

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.

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.

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.…

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…

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…