Mark Powers offers a planning framework:

How can worship leaders enable others to fall deeply in love with God? Here are eight principles that can enable a vertical vortex of Spirit and Truth:

1. Gather God’s family. Whatever your worship tradition or style, liturgical or free, we must allow our people to re-establish their identity as God’s family, either through fellowship or liturgy. Whether with greetings and laughter, or through meditation with quiet music, we become once again a family gathered to worship our Father. Embrace the joy, love, and acceptance of being family. Cultivate and maintain that closeness throughout the worship gathering. Worship leaders can express the warmth and joy of encouragement and love in their words, tone of voice, and posture.

2. Proclaim and celebrate God’s revelation. Begin the service with a powerful proclamation that reveals who God is and what he is doing in the world. Throughout the Bible, God bursts into our mundane lives to announce his power and presence. Refuse to let your worship service get off to a “lame” start. Powerfully celebrate God’s coming to us.

3. Include the Biblical elements of worship through revelation and response. Isaiah 6 models God’s revelation and our response. Build drama and flow throughout worship by reenacting revelation and response. Then analyze carefully your weekly worship to make sure it includes each of these four Biblical elements: God gathers His family; God reminds us of his mighty acts and the gift of Christ; We respond to God’s love in Christ through praise, confession, repentance, and surrender; and God sends us out as his missionaries to our world. These four elements do not have to be compartmentalized into sections. Allow them to flow freely and be repeated as needed within the worship gathering. Create dramatic flow throughout to facilitate the powerful portrayal of the gospel.

4. Focus totally on God and the gospel throughout the service. Teach and remind worshipers constantly that God first revealed himself in love. Our response should be surrendering all we are and have, not demanding something for ourselves. Encourage your worshipers continually to sing to God and not just about God. Help them understand the necessity of engaging intentionally with God every minute during worship. Can they hear his voice speaking directly to them in the songs, the Scripture readings, prayers, sermon, and other expressions? Are they responding in confession, repentance, and surrender? Make a date with God to connect with him in every service. Analyze your worship to see if there are distractions or interruptions to the vertical vortex. Technical system checks are a must to make sure sound, video, lights, etc do not become a distraction.

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Debbie Holloway says churches outnumber Starbucks 25-1:

If I ever want Starbucks, I know one will always be close. There’s one in my grocery store. There’s one a few intersections away from my apartment. There are four within two square miles of my parents’ house! If anything in this country is easy to find, surely, Starbucks is IT, right?

And yet…did you know that churches outnumber Starbucks 25-1? And that’s only counting Protestant churches!

Greg Stier at Pastors.com ponders these statistics, asking,

So how can Starbucks saturate the physical cravings of decaffeinated Americans and the church cannot satisfy the spiritual thirst of Americans with the living water?

His answer? Maybe Christians need to take a few pages from the Starbucks handbook! According to Stier, there are 5 Things Starbucks Can Teach the Church About Effective Evangelism.

1. Train more “baristas” to serve!
“You have to go to church to get served the good news,” he writes – and it shouldn’t be left up to the head pastor to be the only one equipped to serve the people! Does your church give its congregants the tools they need to share the gospel with their friends, family, and co-workers? Do you take responsibility for spreading the good news, or do you just assume that’s your pastor’s job?

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Robert Schuller’s grandson talks about the lasting parts of his family’s ministry.

When Bobby Schuller’s grandfather, Robert Schuller, founded Garden Grove Community Church in Southern California in 1955, he immediately attracted attention. The church met in a drive-in theater, and the novelty of it generated both local and national news coverage. Schuller’s church grew, as did his radio and television ministry. By 1980, he had moved into the famous Crystal Cathedral, an iconic structure designed by world famous architect Philip Johnson. But all was not well in the Schuller empire.

The elder Schuller was often at odds with leaders in his own denomination, the Reformed Church in America, as well as leaders in mainstream evangelicalism. In the mid 2000s, a power struggle ensued within the family. The chaos drove away church members and viewers of the church’s TV program, Hour of Power. In 2012, the ministry filed for bankruptcy protection. Into this chaotic situation entered young Bobby Schuller, then barely 30 years old. His theology, temperament, and leadership style are far less flamboyant than his grandfather’s. Under his leadership, the finances and reach of the Hour of Power program have started on an upward trend again. The church also is growing, with attendance of about 1,500. I had this conversation with Bobby Schuller at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tenn., in early March.

You are the son of Robert Schuller and the grandson of Robert Schuller, the founder of the Crystal Cathedral. Does that mantle weigh heavy on you? I think it weighed heavier on me when I was more of a kid going to Christian school in the ’80s. In the ’80s, Dr. Schuller was the biggest thing. The Crystal Cathedral had just been built, Hour of Power had massive influence. It, at the time, was probably the most watched Christian program in the world. Even though I would go by Bobby, I would be in school and people would say, “Robert Schuller, is that your real name? Did I get tricked?”

You say you went to Christian school. You were raised in a Christian home with this fairly significant spiritual legacy. When did you make the Christian faith your own? The irony about going to Christian school is that, for me, it actually almost pushed me away from the faith. … All of the bad guys, your teachers, they’re the Christian ones, and all of the good guys, your peers, the guys that play sports and stuff, well, they’re not. You build this false narrative in your head. The summer I left Christian school, I went to this convention, actually, and this guy I met played piano for me. There had to be 16,000-17,000 people there. … I don’t even remember what he said, but the act of love was so meaningful for me that as a 16- or 15-year-old I just said, “You know what? I’m done riding the fence. I’m really going to make faith my own.” Since then, my life was completely turned around. I started just devouring the Bible and any other material I could get, started sharing my faith with others. And so I’ve been on fire for the Lord ever since.

Who was the guy? What was the conference? I’m hesitant to say his name because he’s such a different tradition than me. It was actually Jesse Duplantis, who is this guy from Louisiana. He’s the prosperity gospel guy. … I met him in a hotel. We were just talking about piano. He was the nicest, warmest guy ever, and that was really what won me over. He said, “Come over to this convention I’m doing.” I went in there, and I saw all these people raising their hands and worshiping, and it was just a really powerful experience. I didn’t have any loyalties, any particular Christian traditions or denominations, and this guy just touched me deeply. I’ve actually never had the chance to share them, but it was actually someone in this Pentecostal, prosperity-gospel tradition that’s so different than the one I’m in that actually brought me to faith, which has actually taught me the value of respecting people that are not always in your exact camp.

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Mimi Bullock shares ideas for providing kids with unique ways to worship the Lord.

Easter is on its way — are you ready for an influx of children? Share the joy and hope of Easter by providing kids with unique ways to worship the Lord. Prepare ahead of time and make Easter worship an event kids will remember all year long. These Easter worship ideas for kids’ church are good for both junior and senior kids’ ministries. You may need to train a few volunteers to help you with these worship ideas.

Come out of the tomb: A few weeks before Easter, decorate a group of cardboard boxes to look like a tomb opening. Lightly paint the boxes with grey spray paint or cover them with brown paper and draw the stone outline with a black marker. Arrange the boxes as two pillars and put a large, refrigerator box on top. Play Easter songs and lead kids through the tomb opening. Explain to kids that like Jesus, we will be resurrected. Parade around the room and pass through the “tomb” opening while singing the song.

Ribbons of joy: You could use small ribbon wreaths but I prefer large six-foot ribbons or swathes of fabric. Have kids pair off, one taking one end and one child taking another. As the music plays, kids can shake the ribbon to make it move. If you’re like me, and have some particularly exuberant kids, you may have to walk among the worshippers to keep order. Another good tip is to pair off an excited child with a volunteer.

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Ron Edmondson’s thoughts on leadership, church and culture.

I was talking with a church recently that had explosive growth, but things have slowed. They wanted to know why they were not growing any longer.

Honestly, I don’t know. There are probably different reasons for every church that stops growing.

But, this church is seeking answers. So, I decided to share Some thoughts to consider. And, I’m sharing them here.

Obviously, God is ultimately in charge of a churches growth. There are times where God is giving a season of rest and preparation for a church for something to come. In some situations, God may have even taken His hand from the church.

God is into church growth, however. I’m convinced He likes it when a church grows.

It’s our mission as believers to produce disciples and our model example of the first century church was a growing church, so outside the God factor, there are usually reasons for stagnation in a church. Because the church is an organization made up of people, these reasons are often similar to those you may find true as to why growth stalls in the life of an organization also.

In my experience, the are some common variables when growth stalls.

Here are 5 suggestions:

You get comfortable
It’s okay to be comfortable, but when you hang out there too long, it can be dangerous because you stop trying new things to spur growth and excitement.

You quit dreaming
Dreams inspire, challenge, and grow people and organizations. What could the church accomplish to reach its community? You’ll never dream bigger than the dreams God has for you or your church.

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