articles

Consider John Wesley, one of the greatest Christian preachers who ever lived, as an example. Nathan Busenitz, at the Cripplegate Blog, recently wrote an article titled “John Wesley’s Failed Marriage.” In this passage from Stephen Tomkins’ biography on Wesley, he quotes a couple biographies about Wesley, and some statements about Wesley’s marriage…

Todd Rhoades on why you can’t stop now. Whew! Easter is over. For many dynamic churches, this meant extra services and quite possibly the highest attendance of the year. And now you’re probably exhausted. But you can’t stop now. You see, it’s pretty easy to get people to come to…

Vocal coach Chris Beatty answers this question from a concerned mother. Your Question: My daughter’s school trains children on musical instruments, which is great. But there’s no systematic voice training because they are afraid of injuring the undeveloped voice. I get that, but can’t a qualified teacher teach a lot of…

Garrison Smith: you might be in the wrong job if you don’t want to try every available strategy to share the Gospel. In college I was taught McCarthy’s 4 P’s of Marketing. Product. Price. Promotion. Place. The product is what you are selling to the consumer (i.e. candy bar, life…

Kevin D. Hendricks: It can be a crazy week for church communicators. Yesterday we remembered Christ’s triumphant march into Jerusalem with waving palm branches. And so begins the inevitable march to Easter, your last-minute, last-ditch effort to get everything done during Holy Week and before Easter Sunday. It can be…

Ava Pennington: Realize things will go wrong. Basketball has March Madness. Football has Superbowl Sunday. Baseball has the World Series. The Church has…Easter. Christmas may be an eventful season for churches and ministry leaders. But the busyness and ministry stress of Christmas is often surpassed by the church version of…

In just a few days, thousands of churches all over the world will celebrate Easter. Some churches will have Easter egg hunts for the kids. Other churches will have elaborate cantatas, drama productions, or extended times of music. Some churches will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In some assemblies, the pastor…

Todd Rhoades comments on Thom Rainer’s list. Recently, LifeWay President Thom Rainer compiled a list of 20 of what he thinks are the most influential evangelicals in America. The list, he says, is subjective (he just asked about 30 friends for input). Here were the criteria: –They had to be…

Tony Morgan: how do most churches measure the health of their ministry? Very few leaders have an accurate method. Most rely on an unhealthy test to determine whether or not they are leading well. Have you ever used any of these three tests? 1. The Full Room Test Ever looked…

Ed Stetzer says every church should have an online presence, but a physical presence is necessary as well. Come on—it’s 2014. Every church should have an online presence. Your church people and your community are there, so you should be as well. But that is different than referring to something…

Thom Rainer cites interesting research. My son, Jess Rainer, and I recently spoke in Texas on the topic of the Millennials, America’s largest generation of nearly 79 million persons. Because we co-authored a book entitled The Millennials, we have had the opportunity to speak on the subject on many occasions. We…

Rob Rash helps us to be prayerful and intentional when crafting and planning our worship services: If only leading worship we’re as simple as singing a handful of songs each week, I wouldn’t be writing this post. If leading worship was simply a way to warm up the hearts of the…

Ronnie Martin remembers his days as a young worship leader. I’ll be honest, I was scared out of my wits when I first started leading worship. Although I had played rock and roll shows in clubs, festivals and venues around the world, Saturday night had me bound in fits of…

Jon Nicol writes an open letter to senior pastors: Dear Senior Pastor, Before I start, I just want to say thanks for what you do week-after-week to bring us a message from the Word. Most of your congregation has no clue of the work–not to mention the emotional toll–that it…

Ed Stetzer: the motivation behind having different worship services is key. Having multiple services with different musical expressions has become the accepted norm for many churches. Signs and websites routinely advertise “contemporary, traditional and blended services.” Lask week, at the Momentum Conference in Ohio, I mixed it up a bit…