175 results found for: leadership

end

6 Indicators that it’s Time to End a Ministry

Post reshared with kind permission of Breeze church.  Here’s something I’ve learned recently: Every program, ministry and even church has a life cycle. It’s either picking up steam or running out of energy. It really has nothing to do with how long a church, ministry or program has been around; rather it’s all about energy. A few times a year, we gather key leadership for a strategic conversation. Part of this conversation includes evaluating every ministry and program in our church and placing each in one of four categories. Accelerating Booming Declining Tanking Occasionally, when we all agree that a […]

big

Big Church or Little Church?

Shared with permission from The Table podcast In this episode, Dr. Darrell Bock and Dr. Gary Bershears discuss ecclesiology, focusing on the opportunities, challenges, and value of churches of any size. 00:24 Introduction of Gary Breshears 00:44 Topic Introduction 01:08 What kind of Church Drs. Bock and Breshears attend. 03:10 The Church: a building, a people, or a presence? 05:20 How should we think about the church? 07:47 What is the “Social Gospel?” 12:10 How should the church relate to community service projects? 16:50 How should we think about “mega-churches?” 19:40 Is the church for discipleship or evangelism? 24:30 What is the positive impact of the “megachurch?” 33:19 Does […]

commit

7 Steps to Start Becoming a Church People Want to Commit To

A lot of recently unchurched people are like some of the rowdy kids in school. They’re ditching because they’re not being challenged. by Karl Vaters People who don’t go to church, don’t want to go to church. They’re not rolling out of bed late on Sunday morning wishing they had somewhere more churchy to be. In fact, a growing number of people who do go to church don’t want to go, either. If we don’t give them something worth committing to, they’ll be gone soon. As I mentioned in my last post, People Aren’t as Loyal to a Church Or […]

prepare

How to Prepare to Preach When You Have No Time

Guest post from Kevin Halloran of Leadership Resources. According to an unscientific poll, Thom Rainer found that approximately 70% of pastors spend 10 to 18 hours in sermon preparation before preaching. What about the pastors without 10–18 hours? Many pastors (especially bi-vocational pastors and church planters) have to balance the rigors of a full-time job, family responsibilities, and shepherding the flock into their work week, and an extra 10 hours isn’t possible. And what if someone dies? Last-minute funeral sermons don’t prepare themselves during already busy weeks. What is one to do? This is a question we think about regularly, usually in regard […]

disciples

Disciples Don’t Make Themselves: Planning Discipleship

  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Matthew 28:19 Before Jesus left this earth to join His Father in Heaven, He left us with instructions on what to do as His followers.  He said in Matthew 28:19 that we are to “go and make disciples of all nations.”  We call this the Great Commission and it is the sole purpose and calling of the Christian church in the world. There is no other reason for the existence of the Church. And yet so few churches actually make this the priority and focus of their ministry.  Instead they create activities, such as […]

leaving

5 Reasons People are Leaving Your Church

Guest post from Aaron Buer of Breeze Church. Recently I was invited to speak at a church in our town where a friend of mine is the senior pastor. While I was speaking, I experienced something incredibly distracting. I kept recognizing people. “Hey! They used to attend my church!” They were everywhere! This of course led to all sorts of questions, the biggest of which was: Why did they leave? Ever been there? One of the hardest parts of church leadership is watching people walk away. I want to take some time in this post to talk about reasons that […]

stuck

3 Ways Almost Every Church Gets Stuck

Resharing with kind permission from Carey Nieuwhof.  At some point, almost every church gets stuck. If yours isn’t stuck right now, just wait a while. Every church and organization gets stuck at some point. Usually, churches get stuck because what was working stopped working, When that happens, leaders aren’t sure what to do. While figuring that out is complex (and a frequent subject of many posts on this blog), trying to find a solution is difficult if you’re looking in the wrong place. It’s easy to think that churches are prone to get stuck in the past. And that’s true. If there’s a trend, it’s […]

costly

When Preaching the Word is Costly

Guest post from Craig Parro, President of Leadership Resources To us, preaching the Word is a no-brainer. To people like Pastor John from Kenya, it is a costly choice. John used to be a “rhema” preacher—that is, one that ‘followed the Spirit’ in preaching—which really meant saying anything that came to his head at the moment. After studying 2 Timothy’s command to “preach the Word” during a TNT (Training National Trainers) workshop, John repented of his preaching approach and began to preach Word-saturated messages, beginning with Jonah. Many left his church, and one woman even said, “Tell the pastor we’ve had […]

online

Free Online Courses from Our Daily Bread Christian University

Watch and then read: our interview with Evan Morgan, president of Our Daily Bread Christian University (ODBCU), to learn more about the many opportunities available through this online school and then peruse their course offerings shared on our GProLearning site today. Access courses here via our Learning Paths on GProLearning: Interview below: How is Our Daily Bread connected with ChristianUniversity.org? Our ministry was founded in February 1998 as a subsidiary of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in the USA, with the mission of reaching students worldwide with affordable and accessible Christian learning opportunities. We became a subsidiary of […]