articles

Thom Rainer gives insights into church trends: More large churches will function like mini-denominations. These churches will have multiple locations. They will have one senior or lead pastor, and several other campus pastors. They are more likely to fund their own missions priorities, even if they are also contributing to…

Worship leader David Santistevan shares his new year resolutions for ministry: To start things off, I’m going to share with you my commitments for 2014. What I’ve done is taken all my different roles (Christian, Husband, Dad, Worship Leader, Business Owner) and created a declaration about what I want to…

Sutton Turner spent his first 35 years accumulating everything a man could want: a successful business, a beautiful wife and kids, a golf swing, lots of money, and plenty of free time to enjoy the finer things. But he could not buy enough, earn enough, or drink enough to escape…

Warren Bird offers interesting statistics on megachurches: Big churches, for right or wrong, get a disproportionate amount of media attention. This happens especially Christmas and Easter, and in year-end tallies. Below I profile the latest megachurch statistics. Keep in mind that the average church globally numbers fewer than 100 in…

Phil Cooke asks for a moratorium on megachurch criticism: As the saying goes, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket.” There’s never been a greater challenge for world evangelism, there are plenty of social problems like hunger and homelessness we face here in the United States, Christians are…

Thom Rainer on shrinking sanctuaries. A seismic shift is taking place in American church facilities, a shift that will become even more noticeable in the years to come. Church worship centers or sanctuaries will become smaller than they were the past 40 years. As church leaders decide to build, a…

Lauren Hunter on annoying your congregation. With more and more churches becoming savvy in all areas of digital, mobile, and print communication, if not carefully orchestrated, it can be easy to over-communicate with the members you care most about. The last thing you want to do is to allow technology…

Chris Ruddell reveals a clever way to promote your church. Odd as it may sound, one of the scariest places to go is church. When a visitor – especially one that hasn’t been in a church for years – takes that first step inside a church building, they often are…

David Santistevan on your best role for the glory of God and the good of the church. There comes a time in everyone’s life that no one looks forward to. That time where the train takes off. Life moves at deafening speeds. Where at one point you were on the…

Rhett Smith cautions against being so outwardly focused on the needs of others that you don’t look at your own needs. The irony of the work that I do as a therapist is that ministry leaders are one of the biggest referrers to my practice. They often instinctively see someone…

“How do you stay motivated?” That’s what one of my mentees asked me last week while we were sitting around a fire in my backyard. He told me he struggled staying motivated to do anything for more than two weeks at a time before burning out and giving up. It’s…

Glenn Packiam explains that the liturgical year was developed as a way to help the spiritual formation of Christians. I’m not in love with all things old. I don’t think then is better than now. I’m not trying to get back to how things were. My journey in learning about…

David Murrow on creating men-friendly Christmas services: Kyle and Bonnie have been married almost twenty years. Kyle hates going to church. Bonnie loves it. This has caused tension in their marriage, as she subtly prays, preaches and prods Kyle toward religion, and he steadfastly resists. But Kyle “does Bonnie a…