church health Archives » GProCommission

August 27, 2020

“Testing, Testing, Testing …” Part II – A Maturity Check

Testing, Testing, Testing … Global PAN(DEM)IC and a Sound Faith Part II Dr. Ramesh Richard Pressing on to maturity is also a standard theme in the New Testament. The apostle Paul consistently wrote about pressing on, reaching forward and striving toward what is yet to be, based on what is already true (Phil. 3:12–14). Maturity can be cultivated and improved by a Trinitarian Christianity through all kinds of troublesome circumstances. A Trinity-based spirituality orients life to the Father, in the Son and by the Spirit. We mature to the glory of the Father as the reason and effect of our […]

August 20, 2020

“Testing, Testing, Testing …” Part III – A Security Check

Testing, Testing, Testing… Global PAN(DEM)IC and a Sound Faith Part III of III Dr. Ramesh Richard Security builds on survival—a basic human need—but takes a longer view. You and I have physically survived until now, or we wouldn’t be in dialogue. But physical survival does not guarantee security. The onslaught of a dangerous infectious agent threatens the physical health of tens of thousands, myself included. It also undermines economic and psychological safety. “Shelter-in-place” mandates restrict current movement and activity in our city. Economic upheaval eerily looms over any benefits formerly afforded by economic freedom. The international supply chain is […]

March 10, 2020

Kevin Halloran interviews the field director of Leadership Resources Intl. about preventing sins in ministry.

Preventing Disqualifying Sins in Ministry: A Conversation

reshared with kind permission from the Leadership Resources The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16 to “watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (NIV). Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to think of ministers who haven’t watched their lives or doctrine closely. Within the last couple of years, two high-profile pastors in the Chicago area have had their sin exposed publicly, even covered by news outlets like the Chicago Tribune. Major sin by Christian leaders leads to great pain, not only in the ministers’ lives […]

February 6, 2020

The True Cost of Ministry

reshared with kind permission from Josh Reich. Picture this, your church just pulled off a big event, and you are sitting in a room evaluating it and deciding if it was a success. The answers are often dependent on how excited you were before the event and during it — the number of people who attended, people who became Christians, or how you experienced the event. Then someone asks, “Do we do this again next year?” Now, if you are smart, you would stop the conversation at this point. Churches are notorious for throwing money after things they’ve done before […]

January 23, 2020

Pastor Nieuwof breaks down the big shifts that will be needed to change the direction of the church in the coming years.

6 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2020

So what are the 2020 church trends you should watch in what is shaping up to be a very pivotal year? In this post, I’ll share six new trends that really have my attention. While it might seem like a lot of change and challenges ahead, you and I lead in an age of massive disruption. Industries are being disrupted or obliterated in years, not decades, and once-dominant companies are falling fast (just ask Polaroid, Blockbuster or Compaq computers). And leading in the church is even a little more complex than leading in the marketplace for numerous reasons. Here’s one of them: […]

December 2, 2019

Pastoral Training efforts multiply in Latin America

Gloria and her husband Hosman have trained pastors for nine years. They currently aim to train at least 100 per year. But their training emphasis has shifted. Now they not only train pastors to lead local congregations, they train them to replicate their training. By doing so, they exponentially accelerate the training of pastors. Gloria and Hosman face the same challenges that many around the world face: pastors who lack time (many are bi-vocational), money (the church can’t pay them), resources (e.g. transportation), education (even basic) and experience (they don’t know enough to know what they don’t know). So they […]

October 29, 2019

Teach the Church to Pray

Reshared with permission from the author Learning to Pray With Scriptures Praying with Scripture is not a new concept. The use of Scripture for prayer has been around since the early church fathers and it gained momentum during the Monastic period. Some Christian traditions kept this practice in their liturgical worship and Lectio Divina. However, this practice is generally lost to most of us evangelical Christians due to our disproportionate emphasis on spontaneous prayer, thinking that this approach to prayer is much more sincere than prayers that are being read out. The Four Movements in Prayer This book combines methods […]

October 17, 2019

Healthy Church Systems

Many leaders and couples get into church planting or leading in a church because we care about people and want to see their lives changed; marriages healed, past hurts redeemed, addictions broken. This is why we labor, pray, vision cast, have meetings, preach sermons and sacrifice like we do. But how does that happen? The work of the Holy Spirit is one, but the other part of that is through relationships and systems. God is a God of systems and relationships. We see in Genesis 1 both of these. God creates man and woman in His image, and we see […]

October 15, 2019

Millennials Leaving the Church

In this classic episode, Darrell L. Bock, Kat L. Armstrong, Sam Eaton, and Nika Spaulding discuss millennials leaving the church, focusing on how to better engage with this demographic. Transcript below: Dr. Darrell Bock Welcome to The Table. I’m Darrell Bock, executive director for Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary. And our topic, today, are Millennials’ take on the church, and this is a response to an article by the man sitting at my left, here, Sam Eaton, who wrote a piece called “12 Reasons Millennials are Over Church.” Sam Eaton Well, I wrote it […]

October 3, 2019

How To Stay Spiritually Healthy This Ministry Season

Good grief this fall is busy! Is anyone else tired? And, we’re barely into the ministry season. Maybe it’s the combination of ministry and leadership plus all that’s going on with my kids getting older, playing more sports and being involved with more at school, but this season feels a little crazy to me. Earlier this week, I had lunch with a good friend, who is also a pastor in my city, and we were talking about the busyness of life. We were laughing about all the nonsense that comes with soccer, football, cross-country, homework, tired kids, quirky volunteers at […]