Brian Thorstad, Author at Helping Churches Thrive

The Revitalization Playbook: Play #3 – Persuade Your Congregation To Pray For Revitalization

I know full well that I just used two, sometimes scary, words in that title. The word “persuade” means that I’m going to be talking about leadership, and leadership is challenging for many of us pastors. The word “pray” zeros in on one of the hardest aspects of the Christian life for many believers. The…

The Revitalization Playbook: Play #2 – Help Your Church To Take Responsibility For Its Condition

Two weeks ago I began sharing a revitalization playbook. It’s not a step-by-step manual for church renewal, for I don’t believe that creating a universally applicable revitalization plan is possible. But it is going to be a playbook, like that of a football team which has a couple dozen plays it has practiced extensively. And…

The Revitalization Playbook: Play #1 – Help Your Church To Face The Facts

The human capacity for self-delusion is amazing, isn’t it? People who “can’t carry a tune in a bucket” enter singing competitions. Some of us try to squeeze into shirts or pants that are several sizes too small. Couples without carpentry skills take on remodeling projects that would make the best You Tube DIY-ers give up…

The Revitalization Playbook: The Possibility Of Revitalization

The need for church revitalization – we used to call it, “church turnaround” – is all-too evident. BC, that is, “before Covid,” we typically heard that sixty-five to ninety percent of American protestant churches were plateaued or in decline, at least as far as their Sunday morning attendance numbers. In our post-Covid era, those numbers…

Leadership In A Crisis: Ten Ways To Succeed, Part Two

Last week I shared that leadership in a crisis is so hard that it’s normal for us to use this opportunity to make a mess of things. In a crisis, mistakes are normal, wisdom is exceptional and brilliance is almost unheard of. But if you lead anything – from a family to a church to…

Leadership In A Crisis: Ten Ways To Succeed

Leadership in a crisis is hard. Very hard. In a crisis, the norm for us laughably flawed human beings who are trying to lead entire groups of laughably flawed human beings, is to make a mess of things. In a crisis, mistakes are normal, wisdom is exceptional and brilliance is almost unheard of. But if…

Why Some Churches Choose To Die

I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing when I got the news, or even who it was who shared it with me. But when I heard that the church that I’d helped to start in the 1970’s had closed its doors it saddened me greatly. At only twenty-two years old, I…

Solo Pastors: Here Are The Rest Of Those Ways To Keep Your Church From Killing You

I wasn’t trying to be sensational last week when I wrote about how churches with solo pastors often “kill” their pastors, in the sense of rendering them unable to continue effectively in local church ministry. I wasn’t trying to be confusing either, but it would have been better if I had clarified that I was…

Solo Pastors: Here Are 7 Ways To Keep Your Church From Killing You

I’m not trying to be sensational: honest. Nor am I suggesting that churches deliberately, literally, kill their solo pastors. I am saying that churches with solo pastors often, inadvertently, “kill” their pastors, in the sense of rendering them unable to continue effectively in local church ministry. Here’s one line of evidence for this: health insurance. …

Thriving In The Midst Of Chaos, Part Two

Two weeks ago we took on the question of whether or not America is being judged by God. I gave my readers ten ways in which this might be happening here at the beginning of 2023 and asked them to reach their own conclusions. Last week I followed that up with some thoughts about thriving…

Thriving In The Midst Of Chaos

Last week I tackled the ominous question of whether or not America is being judged by God, right now. I gave you ten ways in which this might be happening here at the beginning of 2023. I know. This is serious stuff. So serious that, I’m sorry to say, many churches just won’t “go there.”…

Ten Ways God Might Be Judging America Right Now

Let me make this clear right away: I’m neither prophet nor the son of a prophet. I am a lover of history, an observer of current events and – above all else – a worshiper of God and a student of the Bible. I’m not making prophetic pronouncements on God’s behalf, but I think we…

Churches And Politics: Part Five – Working with God (And Some Proposed Resolutions)

Here at the end of 2022, I’m hearing the pain in the voices of news-following American Christians as they plaintively ask, “Where is God in all this? I want to see God working again!” It’s no coincidence that my friends are sounding a lot like the prophet Habakkuk. The seventh century BC prophet was deeply…

Churches And Politics: Part Four: Realistic Expectations

This is my fourth in what will be a series of five posts, through which I’m seeking to offer congregations some hands-on help with the thorny issue of churches and political involvement. I’m hoping that church leaders will study my propositions, debate the details, and come up with their own, unity-enhancing resolutions for their congregations….

Churches And Politics: Rethinking The Issue, Part Three

The following is my third post in a series, through which I’m seeking to offer church leaders and congregations, some hands-on help with the thorny issue of churches and political involvement. I’m hoping that church leaders will study my propositions, debate the details, and come up with their own, unity-enhancing position papers for their congregations….

Churches And Politics: Rethinking The Issue, Part Two

Perhaps you’ve noticed that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for pastors and churches to simply “stay out of politics.” As our nation strays farther and farther from a Judeo-Christian world view, an increasing number of Biblical-moral-ethical issues have become societal and even political issues. Our church members are grappling with these developments all week long, and…

Churches And Politics: Rethinking The Issue, Part One

For a number of years, I’ve urged pastors and churches to stay out of politics. While writing for a mega-blog, I tried twice to write posts about this subject. The editors were so concerned about staying away from politics that they wouldn’t print my posts about staying out of politics! (A bit extreme, I thought.)…

Three Ways To Engage Seniors In Your Ministry

With help from Pastors Mark Phillips, Scott Ehle and George King “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly, and revere your God. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:32 “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as…

Pastors And Churches: Prepare Your Board For The Future

“…men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do-“ I Chronicles 12:32 “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them.” Acts 6:3 Nobody wants to prepare for a crisis. It’s a lot of…

Too Big For Your Britches: How To Kill Your Small Church By Acting Like A Big Church

“God must love poor people; He made so many of them” Anonymous, but attributed to many sources Grownups had a saying when I was a child: “Don’t get too big for your britches!” It meant, “Don’t get too high an opinion of yourself” or “Don’t be proud and arrogant” or “Don’t pretend to be something…

The Ill-Fitting Staff Member: The Best Solution For Many Situations

“A change will do you good” From the song by Sheryl Suzanne Crow, Sheryl Crow, Jeffrey Trott and Brian Mcleod “…dig up your unplowed ground…” From Jeremiah 4:3 and Hosea 10:12 I’ve written two posts now on the subject of ill-fitting staff members: church employees who – however gifted and dedicated – never were or…