Articles + Podcast
Small Group Killers: 5 Problems That Plague Small Group Ministries
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 99 Have you ever felt frustrated that the same small percentage of your congregation is driving the majority of the engagement? Many in the congregation aren’t involved in any groups, but some members attend two or three classes...
Breaking News: Three Key Insights from Newly Released Church Research
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 98 New church research indicates troubling trends in the American Religious landscape. Discerning churches will pay attention to these trends and act on their implications for their congregation. In this article, I want to...
10 Freedoms Pastors Have in the Church
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 97 Here in the United States we just celebrated our independence on the 4th of July. It’s a time for celebration and remembrance of our freedom. Regardless of whether you’re an American or not (we have a large...
Three Tips for Better Staff Meetings
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 96 Do most of your staff meetings feel like they could have been an email? The sad reality is most church meetings are too long, too report-driven, and just plain boring! Bad meetings are not unique to churches. But your...
5 Roadblocks to a Healthy Church Board
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 95 Have you ever felt like your church’s board wasn’t reaching its full potential? Most church board members are good people that have good intentions. But they’re often inefficient and ineffective because they don’t know how...
7 Vision Failures Holding Churches Back
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 94 Have you worked on vision in your church, but you’re not really seeing the positive effects that you expected? Vision can be tough, and it doesn’t come easy for many, so you’re not alone if you’re struggling. ...
How Do I Know If My Church Is Revitalized?
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 93 Since the primary ministry of The Malphurs Group is church revitalization, there is a good chance that you’re reading this today while in the process of revitalization in your church. If that’s the case, you may be...
How to Leverage the Summer for Growth
5 Ways You Can Experience Summer Church Growth Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 92 Has your church ever experienced a summer slump? Of course it has. Nearly every church sees a dip in attendance over the summer, and it can make you want to shrug your shoulders...
A Pre-Revitalization Checklist
Any church revitalization should start with a church revitalization checklist. Preparation is key. One of the reasons for the high safety record of airlines is that pilots and mechanics carefully work through a preflight checklist. In other words, they stop before...
Keeping Your Church From a Slow Death
Left to itself, the universe tends towards chaos. This is the fundamental truth behind the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A rolling ball will lose its energy until it stops. A rubber band will break or snap back rather than be infinitely stretched. And a church that...
Results-Based Discipleship: From Status Quo to Growth
We need to design ministries in the church to create the results we are after. Learn more about results-based discipleship models.
What Difference Does Emotional Intelligence Make?
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 87 Why write a book or offer a course on emotional intelligence? Is it really that important to the church and its leaders? Following are fourteen reasons why every Christian in general and leaders, in particular, should...
Challenging the Status Quo: How Churches Can Inspire Deep Change
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 86 By definition, the status quo is the current state of affairs. You may consider it a snapshot in time. For some churches though, a snapshot taken today would look the same as a snapshot taken five years ago, or...
Church Strategic Planning: How to Create a Planning Rhythm
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 85 At its core, good church strategic planning is not an event—it is a process of continuous improvement. Most churches fail to make plans. Or, at best, they will put ideas on paper but fail to follow through. The tyranny of the...
Cultivate Individual Evangelism
3 Ways Your Church Can Cultivate Creative Individual Evangelism Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 82 In our Strategic Planning work with churches, we always start at the same place, the Great Commission. It is the central mission of the Church for all time....
Reaching a Post-Christian World: 3 Evangelism Lessons from Saint Patrick
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 81 Before leprechauns, parades, green beer, and four-leaf clovers, there was a faithful Christian leader who ushered in a second-era of church planting that wouldn’t be seen again for centuries. The real Saint Patrick’s story is...
11 Church Hospitality Tips to Serve Guests
The way you treat guests is a reflection of your practical theology. It's true. One of the Bible's deepest values is hospitality, and so if your church is aiming to be Biblical... your church must value hospitality, too! "No one greeted me." "The church was...
The Church’s Competitive Advantage Around the Multi-Ethnic Conversation
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 78 A young teenage daughter sat in the back seat of her parents’ car parked in a parking lot, as protestors in the street marched by. They were protesting a recent case in their city that had received national news coverage and...
The Power & Pitfalls of Metrics
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 77 We all want our churches to be healthy. We want them to bear fruit and be strong enough to hold out hope in a world that is seemingly turning against Christianity. But how healthy is your church? We all swap stories and look...
Stop Training Your Leaders
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 76 You read that right. Stop training your leaders if you want to see better staff and volunteer performance. This sounds almost unbiblical but it has been proven in multiple business studies over multiple decades. In this...
Church Revitalization is not Church Growth
Contrary to what some believe, church revitalization is not the same as church growth. Yes, the church may (and should) grow under your leadership during a revitalization endeavor; however, the numerical growth of a church does not mean it is revitalized or healthy....
Nine Vital Components of Church Revitalization
Church revitalization carries both challenges and joys. Revitalizing a declining or plateaued church challenges the congregation, provides opportunity for change and evaluation, and will inevitably cause some growing pains in the process. When looking to...
A Theology of Hospitality: Say No to Bad Coffee
Good coffee matters, and so does your theology of hospitality. A few years ago, I was put in charge of making the coffee at my church for a small group event in the summer. I’m the master of making coffee in my own home with my own coffee pot. I’ve got the...
Four Challenges Hispanic Churches Face
Church Revitalization Podcast - Episode 75 Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world. While English is more widespread because it’s often a second language, the Spanish language spreads across multiple continents. Moreover, hispanic communities in...