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Friday, September 06, 2024

Friday's Catch: 'Prevent Dechurching: 3 Critical Questions Your Church Should Ask' And More


Prevent Dechurching: 3 Critical Questions Your Church Should Ask
If the church in America is going to make any meaningful progress toward addressing the 40 million adults who’ve left the church in the last 30 years, we must run on two mission-critical train tracks: individual and institutional.

The Ideal Church Size to Pastor
What is the ideal church size to pastor? Josh and Sam discuss the benefits of several different sizes of churches. They each have a favorite size, but the cohosts also cover why many pastors maximize their leadership ability at mid-size churches.

The 3 Kinds of People in Every Church
In Judson Edward’s book, The Leadership Labyrinth, he describes 21 paradoxes in ministry. He defines the ‘relationship paradox’ in this way: the people who like you the most will be the ones you try least to please. He then writes that these three kinds of people fill every church.

4 Healthy (and 4 Unhealthy) Ministry Practices
Little practices, both healthy and unhealthy, can impact the effectiveness of the ministry God has called you to.

Fewer churchgoers giving more to cover church expenses as pastors contend with inflation: study

Though churches have reported ongoing declines in worship service attendance, their fiscal health has not suffered as significantly because the faithful who continue to attend have been giving more to cover operating expenses, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests.
The late A. Wayne Schwab, Evangelism Officer of the Episcopal Church in the early 1990s, found that increased giving by the remaining attendees of a church was a common response to declining attendance and a shrinking congregation. It was not a sign of a healthy church or congregational viability.
Engaging Non-Givers: 8 Strategies to Inspire a Generosity First Step
In a typical church, about 37% of attendees don’t give at all. This is the overall average across all denominations (and non-denominations). Whether it’s 20% or 60%, the number is too high.

Great Staff Meetings Require these 7 Rules
Leaders can’t lead without meeting with others. Sometimes meetings go well. Sometimes they don’t. Often team dynamics derail productive meetings simply because someone misspoke or misheard. As I began to realize this, several years ago I asked a psychologist to help me create some rules for talking in our staff meetings. I call them conversational ethics. Here are the 7 rules....

Detterman's Top Ten List: Modern-Day Challenges to Authentic Christian Worship
Christian worship is in trouble. Books, CDs, journals, conferences, events, and Internet resources are promoting innovative ways to ensure exemplary corporate worship. But pick a church, attend Lord’s Day worship, and more than likely you will discover that authentic Christian worship is in real trouble.

Where Twenty or Thirty are Gathered: Creative Worship Ideas for Smaller Congregations
Ever been scheduled to both take the offering and play the offertory during the same service? Found yourself the sole soprano while singing hymns? Been locked out of your worship space because the only two keyholders were both out of town? If so, you probably belong to a smaller congregation.
In his book Renewal in Worship (1982) Bishop Michael Marshall recommends that smaller congregation tailor their worship to their size and other circumstances and not try to imitate the worship of larger congregations. It is a recommendation from which smaller congregations would greatly benefit. Thom Rainer found from interviews with pastors and the visitors themselves that first time visitors do not respond well to greeting times in church services and recommends against having one.
Word of Truth and Life
This gospel acclamation from Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation would be a useful addition to a congregation's repertoire. It is quite easy to sing. It has an added flute part. The octavo is available from GIA Publications and includes permission to print the congregation's part in the worship bulletin.

Helping Families With Hard Questions
Children ask all kinds of questions—some easy, some difficult. As church leaders, how do we help people respond to these complex questions?

4 Issues Your Children Are Facing That You Never Had To
Parenting in this culture is fraught with challenges that our parents did not encounter when we were kids. Our parents took certain things for granted that our generation of parenting no longer can. For example, the idea of “pronoun preference” was inconceivable twenty or thirty years ago.

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