Thom S. Rainer

Latest

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  Aug 12, 2017

  10 Tough Pieces of Advice Pastors Have Trouble Receiving

  The last thing pastors need is someone to offer them advice. But I do want pastors to hear those pieces of advice that are really difficult to heed.

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  Aug 8, 2017

  5 Reasons Church Organizational Changes Fail

  To be clear, organizational change is absolutely necessary ... some of the time. But much of the time, we lead organizational change for the wrong reasons.

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  Aug 3, 2017

  7 Common Reasons Churches Have a Dramatic Decline in Attendance

  We consider a church to be in dramatic decline when the average worship attendance drops by 20 percent or more in three months or less. What causes such unusual declines?

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  Jul 31, 2017

  Top 10 Surprises New Pastors Have

  I love new pastors. It is fascinating to hear their thoughts after they have served as a pastor for a year or two.

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  Jul 29, 2017

  7 Dangers in the Last Few Years of Your Ministry

  I am assuming I have a few more years left in ministry. And this point in my life is both a time of reflection and looking forward. To be clear, I want to avoid seven dangers in my last years of ministry.

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  Jul 27, 2017

  7 Reasons Why Some Churches Should Consider Being Acquired

  This post is not about a pleasant topic. It's about churches that have declined to the point where their near term future is in doubt.

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  Jul 22, 2017

  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.

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  Jul 19, 2017

  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.

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  Jul 15, 2017

  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.

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  Jul 12, 2017

  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.