Why do some unhealthy churches appear to be thriving while healthy churches struggle to grow? In this episode of the Church Revitalization Podcast, Scott Ball and AJ Mathieu reveal 4 key reasons why unhealthy churches sometimes experience rapid growth - and why pastors shouldn't be fooled by outward appearances.
Not all growth is good growth. Learn to distinguish between genuine spiritual vitality and superficial expansion that could actually harm long-term ministry effectiveness.
What to Expect When Your Church Finally Gets a Building
What can you expect if you transition from temporary space to permanent space?
Here are three lessons we learned.
Your church will also become building-focused instead of mission oriented, lapse into complacency, and lose its evangelistic zeal. Buildings are a double-edged sword. A church does not need a building of its own to be a "real" church (albeit we may be tempted to think that way: "If we build it, they will come.") It does, however, need people who are devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Great Commission.Keep the Change: Four Stages of Visionary Alignment Around What’s Next
Change in your church may begin with a conviction or compelling idea, but it becomes sustainable only through alignment.
‘No easy answers,’ say church leaders after death of pastor at Christian festival
Church leaders have offered their prayers and support following the death of Pastor Robert Guanco at the Big Church Festival.
The 41-year-old was the pastor of Jesus Living Water Church in Eastbourne. He died after a sign fell during the festival at Wiston Park, near Steyning in West Sussex, on Friday afternoon.
Six other people were injured and four were taken to hospital for further treatment.
Iranian Christian convert deported from US granted asylum in Canada
An Iranian Christian convert who was deported from the United States while seeking asylum has received a new home in Canada amid concerns about the safety of Iranian Christians who have faced removal from the U.S.
Artemis Ghasemzadeh has received asylum in Canada, The New York Times reports. Ghasemzadeh, a Christian convert who fled Iran, entered the U.S. illegally with her brother in December 2024 and was detained in San Diego. She was separated from her brother shortly after arriving in the U.S.
French Friday: The Solution to Partisan Christianity
New data finds that almost half of Gen Z adults won't consider going to church because of Christians' support for Donald Trump. David French and Skye Jethani wonder what the research means for the majority of evangelical churches that avoid anything political, and why that may actually be part of the problem. They also discuss the rise of socialism on the political left and why JD Vance's recent memoir suggests socialism may be just as popular on the political right. Plus, what America can learn from the goodness of Dolly Parton.
VOICES: What if America’s religious decline has been overstated?
Over the past decade, the secular media has told us incessantly that American Christianity is in its death throes. The number one news story on religion in recent years has been the rise of the “Nones,” or people who say they have no religion.
So, is it finally the end for American faith? No. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll see why it’s not.
While some assessments of the state of Christianity in the United States may be overly pessimistic, others are overly optimistic. Believing in a supreme being or a higher power or the supernatural is not equatable with faith in Jesus Christ. Even in the People's Republic of China the segment of the population that is officially atheistic, i.e., the Communist Party, is superstitious, believes in lucky days and unlucky days, and practice various forms of traditional Chinese fortune telling. This is also true of Japan where the larger segment of the the population is atheistic but will flock to Shinto shrines on New Year's Day and buy good luck charms at Shinto shrines on other occasions. The authors of this opinion piece make some interesting observations. While I would not dismiss their assessment entirely, I lean toward assigning it to the overly optimistic category.Few Pastors Have Church-Paid Health Insurance Benefits
When people think of pastors, they often assume they receive employment benefits similar to those in the corporate world. The assumption seems reasonable. Pastors lead organizations, supervise staff, counsel members, and often work far more than forty hours a week. Surely they receive health insurance and other employee benefits.
The reality is quite different.
6 Ways to Support Families of Children with Disabilities
If you’re eager to partner with families of children with disabilities, here are six encouragements.
Rethinking Expectations of Kids in Church
Children are full members of the Body of Christ today, bringing essential gifts, faith, and wisdom to our common life. As congregations seek deeper ways to welcome young people, we face a core question: How does our culture need to change so children can participate more fully in worship and the life of the Church?
That question anchored a recent workshop led by the Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, an author, theologian, and practical ministry expert. The session was part of Pathways to Prayer and Practice, a five-year initiative supported by a major grant from the Lilly Endowment.
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a surge of interest in integrating children into the worship, ministry, and life of the church in the Episcopal, Lutheran, and other mainline churches. A number of works on the topic were published. In 2000 I wrote an occasional paper for my diocese's liturgy and music commission on the subject. Regrettably I never published the paper and saved it on a floppy disc. It was based on what we had done to this end at my own church as well as the literature on the topic.
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