Thom S. Rainer

Thom S. Rainer

Op-ed Contributor

Latest

  • 10 Roadblocks to Church Revitalization

    10 Roadblocks to Church Revitalization

    Two-thirds of our churches are plateaued or declining. Since so many of our churches are in need of revitalization, let's begin by seeing what roadblocks hinder turnarounds.

  • 7 Costs to Being an Evangelistic Leader in Your Church

    7 Costs to Being an Evangelistic Leader in Your Church

    The topic of evangelism has grown strangely quiet in many churches. Pastors are not talking about it. Other church leaders aren't talking about it. Members aren't talking about it.

  • 5 Sobering Realities About Evangelism in Our Churches

    5 Sobering Realities About Evangelism in Our Churches

    Growing churches are growing largely by transfer growth. Most of them are not reaching people with the gospel. They are growing at the expense of other churches.

  • 5 Surprising Discoveries About Growing Churches

    5 Surprising Discoveries About Growing Churches

    Let's take a few moments and look at the churches whose average worship attendance grew from 2013 to 2016. Here are five of the surprising discoveries from this research.

  • Is There a Church Death Spiral?

    Is There a Church Death Spiral?

    I am troubled by one major aspect of the research we just conducted. If your church has fewer than 100 in worship, it is likely to be a declining church.

  • Dispelling the 80 Percent Myth of Declining Churches

    Dispelling the 80 Percent Myth of Declining Churches

    Have you ever heard, "80 percent of churches are either plateaued or declining"? I have. It's wrong. Here are the results of our research.

  • 5 Terrible Reasons to Enter Vocational Ministry

    5 Terrible Reasons to Enter Vocational Ministry

    I've seen too many people in vocational ministry fail to launch. Perhaps "launch" is not the best term, because they may stay in ministry for many years. But they never seem to do well.

  • 5 Overcorrection Mistakes Churches Make

    5 Overcorrection Mistakes Churches Make

    The pendulum swings in churches. The congregation does not like a previous direction, so they overcompensate with the next move they make.

  • Top 10 Questions Pastors Ask Me

    Top 10 Questions Pastors Ask Me

    I developed Church Answers to create a safe place for church leaders to ask questions and interact with each other. It was also the best way to handle the volume of inquiries that come to me.

  • 20 Relics of Church Past

    20 Relics of Church Past

    "What did you have or do in your church ten years ago that you don't have or do today?" The top twenty responses were, for me at least, a fascinating mix of the expected and the surprises.