Church Growth

Over the years, Craig Olson witnessed many problems with the church. But the straw that really broke the camel’s back for him was when his wife committed adultery, and began living with the man she left her husband for and attending Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill. He claims that she was able to go to the megachurch and “not be challenged in any way” for her actions.

This incident, and many like it, led Olson to stop attending church with no intention of going back, unless “they change enough to care for people.”

Out of Olson’s disillusionment with the church comes the recent release of his book, The Casual Christian. He tackles some of the problems he sees with the modern day church. He says a lot can be learned from the first century mindset early Christians had. more >>

Okay, not literally. I’m talking about the kind of spiritual and numerical church explosion we read about in the book of Acts. And these principles don’t just apply to a church setting. They can apply to a youth group or campus ministry as well. There’s a very interesting statement in chapter nineteen and verse twenty of Luke’s most excellent book that points us the nitrogen and glycerin mix to make a big and lasting boom in our churches,

“In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”

The three words “in this way” should point us to the verses leading up to the kaboom and help us identify what the ingredients were that enabled the great bomb maker, the Apostle Paul, to be used by God to see such rapid spiritual and numerical growth in the church of Ephesus. Here is the first of three ingredients that Paul used to make his church growth bomb: more >>

In the history of the more than 2,000-year-old Christian Church, megachurches have only been around for about 1 percent of the time, according to one California pastor, yet they continue to grow in numbers and sizes, impacting the rest of the world.

An infographic recently done by the graphic design and statistical research company, Good, attempts to show what the average megachurch looks like. It reveals that 83 percent of the megachurches in the U.S. grew in 2009.

A megachurch is defined by the company as a Protestant congregation with 2,000 or more members. The definition also includes the note that megachurches differ in style, targeting young people with services that are often held in auditoriums and theaters instead of worship halls. more >>

SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Orange County version of Seattle-based megachurch Mars Hill has a new home in an unconventional setting, it was announced Sunday.

Although members of Mars Hill Church Orange County have been meeting at various locations on Saturday evenings since August, the church doesn’t officially launch until January.

This coming Saturday evening, Dead Man’s Party, an Oingo Boingo tribute band, plays at The Galaxy Theatre, a mostly punk rock concert hall in Santa Ana. On Sunday morning at 10 a.m., the somewhat crusty building becomes the site of Mars Hill Orange County’s first church service in its newly leased facility. more >>

WASHINGTON – Joel Osteen, the pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church, hopes his fame will put a face on the nation's Christian community. The New York Times bestselling author is leading Lakewood's Champions Network, a national network that helps Christians find churches in their area.

"I feel like God said 'Joel, go connect with other pastors and get people into good, Bible-based churches,’" he said Monday at a Champions Network meeting in Washington, D.C. "I'm trying to throw a wide net of hope and catch people flipping through the channels unaware of Christ."

Osteen's ministry first reached the mainstream with his 2004 Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. The self-help book was a publishing hit, and Osteen followed it with another bestseller, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, in 2007. His latest work, Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week, was released last month and offers advice on making the most of each day's experiences. more >>

A pair of churches each bearing the name "Mars Hill" have made amends after nearly beginning a legal battle over who possessed rights to the name.

Seattle's Mars Hill Church issued a cease and desist letter to Sacramento's Mars Hill Community Church last week, presenting the possibility of legal action over the moniker both ministries share. Social media backlash brought both parties to the bargaining table, and the two have since reached an agreement where Mars Hill Community Church will change its logo.

"I want to thank the Mars Hill Seattle staff for demonstrating a genuine brotherhood and passion for the kingdom of God," said Scott Hagan, Mars Hill Community Church's senior pastor, in a Sunday blog post titled "A Response from Pastor Scott Hagan, Mars Hill Community (Sacramento) to the 'Cease and Desist' Issued by Mars Hill (Seattle).” more >>