To count or not to count: Churches have been debating the wisdom of measuring “nickels and noses” – now known as “metrics” – for a long time. I’m sure I’ll never convince everyone, but I’m going to make a case for keeping track of a few metrics as part of the process of revitalizing a…
The Revitalization Playbook: Encourage Real Worship
Since my post on March 8th, I’ve been writing a revitalization playbook, a church leader’s resource for helpful, timely, turnaround strategies. The first three plays were “scripted,” in the sense that I strongly recommended that they should be implemented in this order: Help your people face the true condition of their church, Help your congregation…
The Revitalization Playbook: The Value Of Hands-On Projects
I can’t entirely explain this, but there is something about a hands-on project that is very helpful to churches undergoing a revitalization process. By a “hands-on project” I’m talking about efforts that involve physical tasks undertaken by a large number of people, or a large percentage of the members of a small church, which have…
The Revitalization Playbook: Address Your People Problems
In some congregations it’s just one person: one controlling Diotrephes (III John 12), one harmful Alexander (II Timothy 4:14), one willful, rude, thoughtless bully, somebody who wants to be a big fish in a small pond. In other churches, it’s one family which thinks that First Church is their own personal piece of property, like…
The Revitalization Playbook: Build A Supportive Coalition
Last week I wrote about building a unified leadership team as an important step in seeing a heaven-sent revitalization of your church. If you are the pastor (or lead pastor) in a congregation which is on the downside of the church lifecycle, you’re going to need a cooperative – if not an enthusiastic – board/council/consistory/session,…
The Revitalization Playbook: Build A Unified Leadership Team
You can’t do this yourself. David had his mighty men (I Chronicles 11). Jesus chose twelve men, “…that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons…” (f/Mark 3:13-15). I’m assuming, for the moment, that you are a pastor. If you’re not,…
The Revitalization Playbook: Missional Realignment
It’s that time of year again. At least here in the Midwest, it’s pothole season. And for drivers, potholes mean front end alignments. Churches need periodic realignment as well. They just naturally get all bent out of shape. Among other problems, they tend to forget what their mission was. Missional realignment is often needed to…
The Revitalization Playbook: Bold, Serious Preaching
“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” II Timothy 4:2 “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among thorns.Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, Circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem…” F/Jeremiah 4:3,4 Six weeks ago,…
The Revitalization Playbook: Give Your Congregation A Simple Dream Of A Revived Church
I used the word “dream” in my title instead of the more popular, “vision” because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m not talking about anything grandiose here: You know: 20 thousand people, 40 acres of land, etc. I’m talking about something which is far more accessible than that: A dream for…
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…
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