Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Midweek Roundup: Seventeen Articles and Six Videos


Seven Situations Where Your Church Should Not Have Greeters

A good greeter is an incredible and invaluable resource for a church. A poor greeter is a terrible ambassador for a church. Read more

How to Structure Your Church To Grow Past 200 Attenders

It’s one thing to want to see your church grow. It’s entirely another to position your church structurally so you can accommodate growth. If you structure bigger, you can grow bigger. If you don’t, you won’t. Read more

7 Must-Do Items For Your Church Growth Calendar

One of the essentials for leading an outreach-focused, growing church (and likewise RARELY present in a stagnant one) is a detailed 12-month church growth calendar created six months before that calendar year begins. What I mean by this is the Senior Pastor and team must create a roadmap for the congregation to follow, which, when executed, will ignite church growth. Read more

Are Your New Members Becoming New Ministers?

The first 6-12 months of a newcomer’s association with your church are both important, and perilous. The “friendship factor” is the key ingredient in whether newcomers become long-term attenders, or just slip quietly out the back door. Research shows that the average “active member” makes over 7 new church friends in the first 12 months, “drop outs” make only 2. Read more

Bringing About Courageous Change

In leadership, one of the hardest things to overcome is a person’s resistance to change. Whether it’s your own resistance or opposition from people you are leading, it takes a lot of courage to effect change. In fact you might say that change never happens without a courageous leader to initiate it. Now courage isn’t the same as confidence or arrogance. It’s a very unique quality that is invaluable to every effective leader. Here are a few notes about courage. Read more

3 Leadership Metaphors for Community

Leadership is such a strange thing, especially in the West. The position of leadership is idolized while the role of leadership is neglected. Read more

5 Keys to Developing Young Leaders in Your Church

This past weekend I had the opportunity to do some coaching at Ethos Church, a young multisite church located in Nashville, Tennessee. In just 7 years Ethos has grown to 3 locations and more than 2,500 people in attendance, and the rate at which they are baptizing people is in the top 10% of churches in the US! Plainly stated God is using the ministry of Ethos Church to change people’s lives. But what excited me the most about my time with them was everywhere I looked there were young leaders, and not just serving as interns or in some inconsequential role. But there were young men and women in their 20’s and 30’s (the ones in their 30’s were the old ones…I guess that makes me ancient now) who are serving as the Sr. Leaders of this fast growing church. Read more

A Forgotten Prerequisite In Developing Leaders

For you to have people who can lead others, they must be able to lead themselves. We champion the importance of knowing yourself to lead yourself because it really does all start there. Read more

Young Leader Shifts – Part 1

We’ve come to the place, many of us, where we’re happy with getting something done once or with just half heartedly leading. Sure, we won’t admit it, but many of us lead daily from a place of “just getting it done.” I understand that feeling. I know that some of us have so many things going on that just getting it done can be an accomplishment. Great leaders, however, rise above “just getting it done” and become people that do it (or get it done) with consistent excellence. Read more
This is part one of a 5-part blog series for young leaders. Part Two and Part Three are also online.
4 Keys to Difficult Conversations

Difficult conversations should always focus on future behavior. It’s NOT about the past, because there’s nothing we can do about the past. Read more

12 Hard Things to Say – 5 Ways to Say Them as a Leader

n any relationship, there comes a time where it’s necessary to say things which are difficult to keep the relationship strong and make it better. This is also true in a healthy team environment. All leaders have things they need to say, which are hard sometimes. Read more

Need More Evidence Pastoring is Not a Doomsday Profession? Look at the Wesleyan Church

A lot of rumors fly about the poor state of pastors' emotional and mental health. Read more

Tips for Christmas Event Safety

Beautiful decorations can be hazards if you’re not careful. Read more

How Tumblr Can Boost Your Youth Ministry

Tumblr’s biggest growth is among young people—20.3 percent of Tumblr users are in the 12-17 age group and 29.3 percent are in the 18-24 age group. That, combined with the fact that it’s quick and easy to use and has a lot of options for offering diverse social media content, may be all the reason you need to get active on Tumblr with your youth ministry. Read more

Help! My Small Groups Are Stuck at 30 Percent

f you have managed to connect 30 percent of your adults in small groups, then congratulations are in order! You are among the top one half of one percent of all churches in America! Go ahead and pat yourself on the back! You deserve it! Now that you’ve been congratulated, let’s get to work. Quite a few things could contribute to your state of stuckness. Here the biggest factors in small groups getting stuck. Read more

WWHDD: What Would His Disciples Do?

“The world has changed. The word ‘disciple’ is in the air; I can feel it in the water, I can feel it in the earth.” That’s a little twist from Galadriel’s well-known line in The Lord of the Rings. The word disciple truly is in the air today. The church has been paying attention to discipleship again—you see it as a focus in conferences and several recent popular books. Yet, one thing I hope is not lost in this fresh attention is a major focus on what a disciple is and how they spend their time and prayers. Read more

A Crash Course on the Muslim World View and Islamic Theology [Videos]

A two-part video on the historical background to Islam and four videos on the Muslim Worldview, Islamic Theology,and Islam in America. Watch now

Study: New churches show appeal among the unreached

America is launching new Protestant churches faster than it loses old ones, attracting many people who previously didn't attend anywhere, new LifeWay Research studies show. Read more

Church Planting 2015: Who Attends and What Attracted Them

Successful new churches share four factors, LifeWay Research finds. Read more

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