Thom S. Rainer

Latest

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  Oct 14, 2015

  9 Essentials for Guest-Friendly Church Bulletins

  In many circles, the church bulletin or worship folder is perceived to be old school, the tool of staid and traditional churches. Leaders with such a perspective are missing an incredible opportunity to put something in the hands of guests that, at least anecdotally, increases the chances they will return.

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  Oct 12, 2015

  10 More Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Guests

  On November 1, 2014, I wrote a blog post about ten ways churches drive away first-time guests. Those top ten ways came from an informal Twitter poll. I was surprised by the number of responses we received for both the poll and the blog post.

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  Oct 10, 2015

  10 Signs Your Pastor Is Becoming a Chaplain

  In the broadest sense, a chaplain refers to those who are assigned to care and provide ministry for a specific group of people. Military and hospital chaplains, for example, have clearly defined groups who come under their care and ministry.

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  Oct 4, 2015

  7 Reasons We Shouldn't Abandon the Term 'Church Member'

  One of the more frequent question readers have asked me is: "Do you think the term 'church member' is still relevant?"

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  Oct 2, 2015

  7 Internal Barriers to Church Growth

  There is rarely a simple explanation for the decline of a church. It is often a complex mix of cultural, theological, attitudinal, and internal issues. In this article, I address the latter issue.

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  Sep 27, 2015

  20 More Really Weird Things Said to Pastors

  If you get a group of pastors and church staff together, you will inevitably hear some pretty unusual comments they received from church members. So I did an informal Twitter poll to get some of these comments in writing.

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  Sep 24, 2015

  5 Problems With Church Committees

  At some point in my ministry, I became allergic to committee meetings. I realized I was spending a lot of time in those meetings that could be used for productive ministry.

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  Sep 20, 2015

  What If I Could Only Have 25 Books in My Minister's Library?

  I recently gave away thousands of my books in my library. I only have a few left. In the exercise of deciding which few books I would keep, I asked myself a hypothetical question: What if could keep only 25 of the books?

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  Sep 13, 2015

  25 Really Weird Things Said to Pastors

  Few people are truly aware of the constant requests, complaints, and criticisms pastors and other church leaders receive. I must admit, however, I was surprised when I asked church leaders on Twitter to share some of the more unusual comments they have received.

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  Sep 6, 2015

  7 Steps Churches Are Taking to Replace the Stand-And-Greet Time

  I would have never expected the response to a topic that seemed so innocuous. On this blog many people were very vocal that they really didn't like the stand-and-greet time during the worship services.