- 05/17/2013
Eight Signs of Fearful Leadership
Over the past few years, I've heard the phrase "courageous leadership" used to describe the trait of those leaders who are making a difference today. Unfortunately, we also know many who are in leadership positions where that courage is not apparent. Indeed, they demonstrate leadership that is fearful.
3 comments - 05/13/2013
Five Ways to Avoid Lying about Church Attendance
I have used these lines many times in speaking venues. I ask the audience if they know how Baptists count weekly worship attendance. The knowing smiles break forth on most faces. I then began counting each person in the conference by saying 2, 4, 6, 8 . . . As the audience waits for the punch line, I say that every believer is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, so each person counts as two.
13 comments - 05/08/2013
Five Reasons Your Pastor Will Not Ask for a Raise
My recent blogpost on pastors' salaries drew a lot of attention. There are indeed some heated emotions on both sides of the issue. Much of the concern expressed about the pay of ministers seems to focus on those cases of real indulgence and abuse. But it's those cases that get the most attention and, sadly, hurt the vast majority of ministers who are faithful stewards of God's money.
34 comments - 05/04/2013
Four Ways to Improve the Worship Leader–Pastor Relationship
Worship leader: your pastor is the single most important professional relationship you have. You may be the primary facilitator of music and media, but he's ultimately in charge—and he's usually the one taking the fallout when things go awry. You absolutely want a healthy, dynamic relationship with your pastor.
3 comments - 04/27/2013
Can a Dying Church Find Life? Six Radical Steps to 'Yes'
I must say from a pure statistical perspective, most churches with the symptoms I noted will die within a matter of a few years. Though I don't have hard data, I would be comfortable suggesting that the percentage exceeds 99 percent. In the midst of the gloomy news of terminal churches, I took a look at a few churches that had all the signs of impending death and then turned around to life.
18 comments - 04/20/2013
Four Simple Reasons Most Churches Aren't Breakout Churches
Almost a decade ago, I led a major study on churches that had reversed negative trends and become positive breakout churches. I established the criterion that the breakout had to take place without changing pastors. I knew from previous research that most breakout churches had new pastors. I wanted to see if it was likely for a church to turnaround without getting a new pastor.
7 comments - 04/16/2013
Eight Most Frequent Preaching Distractions
Preachers are also too familiar with distractions. While it's the way of life of someone who gets in front of people to speak, it is no less annoying. I asked a number of pastors to share with me the most frequent distractions they experience while preaching. Here are there responses in order of frequency. I also took a representative quote from one of the respondents for each item.
5 comments - 04/15/2013
Six Critical Issues to Prevent Church Members from Dropping Out
The first "test" consists of three questions. Though the church member may not ask these questions specifically, he or she is evaluating three critical issues to determine if it's time to move or stay. These are the issues around the six-month point.
5 comments - 04/13/2013
Six Critical Issues to Prevent Church Members From Dropping Out
Of all the members who drop out of church, 82 percent leave in the first year of their membership. Retention efforts are thus critical in the first twelve months after a member joins a church.
1 comments - 04/12/2013
Seven Distinguishing Characteristics of Unified Churches
The exercise was simple. I made a list of over 30 of the most unified churches I know. Some of them have been my clients in the past. I then made a list of over 40 fragmented churches (they were easier to find). From that point I began to answer my own questions: What makes this church look like it's unified? What makes this other church look like it's fragmented?
7 comments - 04/06/2013
Seven Things Pastors' Wives Wish They Had Been Told Before They Became Pastors' Wives
I am especially grateful to have the opportunity to hear from pastors' wives since much of my focus is on pastors. Our recent, informal survey simply asked the open-ended question: "What do you wish you had been told before you became a minister's wife?"
2 comments - 03/30/2013
Ten Commandments for Guest-Friendly Church Members
I travel a lot and spend a lot of time in different churches. I have had a church consulting firm that did "guest" visits as part of our services. Sadly, many times I do not feel welcome as a guest when I visit churches.
20 comments - 03/27/2013
The 15 Largest Protestant Denominations in the United States
The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches assembles various data on churches and denominations across North America. I recently gleaned the top 15 denominations by membership in the United States from their reports:
81 comments - 03/25/2013
Five Steps to Get Beyond Sacred Cows in the Church
Many years ago I was serving as pastor of a church where I was an avid supporter of door-to-door outreach. But I struggled with leading people to be involved in the ministry. We kept decent records, so I got the old "outreach cards" for the previous year. My brief research shocked me.
14 comments - 03/20/2013
Top 10 Bible Translations in the United States
The Christian Booksellers Association has published its list of bestselling Bible translations in 2012 for the United States.
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