Church Is Boring? 3 Times It Actually Is
When someone says or thinks that church is boring, what is it exactly that they are bored by? Here are three times a church gathering actually is boring—to us and, I want to suggest, to God as well. Smiling through small talk can be boring. In a commercial, a young woman walks up to the […]
Revitalized Churches Start Listening
*Editor’s Note: In this series on church revitalization, Adam Jones, senior minister of Connect Christian Church in Carl Junction, MO, walks through important steps a declining church can take. Revitalization requires renewed leaders and a rediscovery of family. In this article, Jones explores the need to calm down and listen. When my son was four […]
Revitalized Churches Rediscover Family
The church began in 1885. The early years were poorly documented but assumed to have been fruitful. After all, they began with 37 people meeting in a borrowed space before building their first sanctuary in 1901. By 1970, the church had grown enough to need a new building, so ground was broken on some donated […]
3 Ways to Check Your Organization’s Culture
Organizational culture seems like a simple concept at first glance. Putting words on paper, talking about concepts, and pronouncing to the world that this is who we are and what we will do—all these can start an organizations campaign on the right track, but as time goes on and the day-to-day grind ensues, an organization’s […]
Structuring Churches for a Better Kind of Growth
A while back a friend of mine, a pastor of a growing church, asked me for some advice about what next hires he should make in order to help his church keep growing. His church had about 450 people attending regularly, and he wanted to know a good hiring strategy for growth. I was a […]
The Trap of “What Was” and Leading Your Church Out
Imagine if you woke up one day and everyone you saw was walking backward, and every car was driving backward. The insane ridiculousness of this thought is hard to imagine. What a mess! Accidents would be piling up while people tripped around you. Yet, in so many, churches, this is the reality. Why are we […]
Is Your Church Healthy? Let’s Be Careful…
How would you feel if a consultant came in to evaluate your church and delivered a report like this one? I have seen all that your church is doing. I saw your love for each other. I saw your faith, your service to each other and to the community around you. I saw your hard […]
Q&A – What Gets in the Way of Being a Multiethnic Church?
Churches which are truly multiethnic and multicultural take a lot of intentionality, and there are plenty of factors that can obstruct the process. I recently sat down with four church leaders who are doing this well and asked them questions which get at the heart of how churches can be more intentional about pursuing multiethnic, […]
