Articles + Podcast
How to Recruit More Volunteers
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." - Jesus Luke 10:2 reminds us of the uncomfortable truth about recruiting volunteers: there will always be more work than there are people willing to do the work. Obviously that was true in the first century and it...
Four Questions Young Families Ask When Looking for a Church
The church is bleeding fastest among its youth. If your church has seen decline in recent years, you likely know this to be true at the anecdotal level. But the research bears this out, too. 60% of Christians between 16-29 leave the church. Nearly every church that...
Maximizing Fall Outreach Events
Tis the season for trunk or treats, fall festivals, harvest bazaars, and more. Anytime we host an event at our church we need to be strategic about it. Otherwise, what's the point? We should always have a purpose and a plan. Even if that purpose is simply to be a good...
Warning Signs of a Bad Church Budget
Building a budget has got to be the least attractive part of going into ministry. I remember when I received the call from the Lord to go into ministry when I was in junior high school. I had dreams of sharing the gospel, comforting the down-trodden. I had a passion...
Tips to Increase Giving at Your Church
If we want to see increased giving in our churches, we cannot keep doing the same old things the same old way. We need to think differently. Here are 9 tips for increasing giving at your church.
Ministry Goals: Five Winning Characteristics
Your church will never go where you are not intentionally leading it. If you want to lose twenty pounds, but never go on a diet or exercise, it will not happen. If you want to retire with a nest egg, but never save and invest, it will not happen....
Do You Have a Leadership Pipeline to Nowhere?
"Leadership Pipeline" remains a popular buzzword in business and ministry, and for good reason. We do need to be developing leaders at all levels of our organizations. Active, growing, thriving organization cultivate leaders in order to fill new positions, replace...
Leave It Better Than You Found It
There’s something genuinely disappointing about being out in nature—on a beach, in the woods, above tree line on the way to the top of a mountain—and discovering that someone had left behind a bottle, wrapper, container, cigarette butt or the like. You many not feel...
10 Ways to Burn Out Your Team
A church's most valuable asset is its leadership; so you must be careful not to burn out your team. In our collective decades of ministry and consulting experience, we have seen again and again how churches that lack healthy leadership eventually struggle. To be...
How Preaching Can Change Lives
Those of us who are regularly teaching and/or preaching in our churches do so to encourage life change on the part of the people who sit under our ministries. And as we are preaching or teaching life changing principles from God's word, our desire is that these truths...
10 Ways to Maximize Fall Church Attendance
Back to school, back to church. Throughout the country, churches of all sizes and denominations experience a bump in fall church attendance. Congregations benefit from people wanting to get back into the rhythm of "normal" life after the crazy summertime pace. The...
5 Myths About Leadership Accountability
Churches without leadership accountability have a one-way ticket to organizational implosion. This isn't an overstatement. It's the truth. When pastors lack effective accountability, eventually the ministry will fail. That's why leadership culture is one of the...
9 Reasons People Are Not Coming To Your Church
“Why aren’t more people coming to worship with my church?” To some extent, I think every pastor and servant leader in the church has asked this question at one time or another. It is natural. You want to make a greater impact. But everyone experiences a lull at some...
10 VBS Ideas to Infuse Strategic Thinking Into Your Church
As a kid, I have very few memories more vivid than of spending a week in Vacation Bible School. I would attend two weeks: one at my church and one at my best friend’s church. I remember the week at my friend’s church the most because it was different. As a part of...
10 Deadly Church Planting Mistakes
10 Deadly Church Planting Mistakes There is a never-ending need for new churches to be planted. From sea to shining sea, there is no community in America where we can hang a “mission accomplished” banner and stop planting churches. Wherever God is calling you to plant...
Why Churches Are Too Busy And 5 Ways Church Leaders Can Respond
Your busyness diminishes your productivity. When your church does everything, it usually ends up doing few things well. When you get involved in everything or focus on too many things at once, you end up accomplishing less of what you wanted to do. You begin to see...
A Good First Impression Starts with Clarity
We've all had the experience of being a first time guest at a church. Hopefully it was good, but maybe it wasn't. Just like with any first impression, you should aim to make a good first impression of your church, even in the little things. A good first impression...
5 Ways Pastors are Preparing for Strategic Planning in the Church
Every church our team works with consistently asks what they should do next. It is hard to have it all figured out. Pastoral ministry is tough. Maybe you don't know what to do next yourself. Pastors often find the concept of vision clarity and strategic planning...
11 Steps for Developing Strong Church Leaders
Pastor Bill Hybels once said that Christ’s church is the hope of the world, and leadership is the hope of the church. In light of this, we discover that the reason so many churches are struggling in North America and beyond results from poor or nonexistent leadership....
8 Ways Healthy Churches are Killing the Church to Save the Church
So many people fight for the survival of their church at all costs. I'm sure most mean well, but what's wrong with killing the church to save the church? I should probably explain...as many will undoubtedly voice concern about why we should save the church. But what...
14 Ways to Better Understand Your Community
One of the best ways to reach your community is to take the time to understand your community and what makes it unique. In Acts 1:8, Luke writes that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and therefore we are to be witnesses to our communities...
15 Characteristics of Healthy Church Leaders
A healthy church begins with healthy church leaders. It's easy to assume someone serving "in ministry" has things all together, but you and I both know this can certainly be far from the truth at times. Church leaders are human, which means they are fallible (*gasp!*)...
5 Indicators That You Do Not Need A Church Consulting Firm
What are the indicators that you do not need a church consulting firm right now? We hear all sorts of talk about the newest tool a pastor of our church can use. Sometimes you'll read a blog post about the three, five, or seven best of whatever to fix a certain area of...
15 Church Security Tips and Resources for Pastors and Church Boards
Church security has risen to the forefront of our minds in recent years. From school shootings around the country to shootings in churches in Texas, South Carolina, and more--Americans are increasingly concerned about safety in public places. We need a healthy balance...