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August 14, 2018

When Preaching the Word is Costly

Guest post from Craig Parro, President of Leadership Resources To us, preaching the Word is a no-brainer. To people like Pastor John from Kenya, it is a costly choice. John used to be a “rhema” preacher—that is, one that ‘followed the Spirit’ in preaching—which really meant saying anything that came to his head at the moment. After studying 2 Timothy’s command to “preach the Word” during a TNT (Training National Trainers) workshop, John repented of his preaching approach and began to preach Word-saturated messages, beginning with Jonah. Many left his church, and one woman even said, “Tell the pastor we’ve had […]

August 7, 2018

3 Ways Almost Every Church Gets Stuck

Resharing with kind permission from Carey Nieuwhof. At some point, almost every church gets stuck. If yours isn’t stuck right now, just wait a while. Every church and organization gets stuck at some point. Usually, churches get stuck because what was working stopped working, When that happens, leaders aren’t sure what to do. While figuring that out is complex (and a frequent subject of many posts on this blog), trying to find a solution is difficult if you’re looking in the wrong place. It’s easy to think that churches are prone to get stuck in the past. And that’s true. If there’s a trend, it’s […]

July 3, 2018

5 Reasons People are Leaving Your Church

Guest post from Aaron Buer of Breeze Church. Recently I was invited to speak at a church in our town where a friend of mine is the senior pastor. While I was speaking, I experienced something incredibly distracting. I kept recognizing people. “Hey! They used to attend my church!” They were everywhere! This of course led to all sorts of questions, the biggest of which was: Why did they leave? Ever been there? One of the hardest parts of church leadership is watching people walk away. I want to take some time in this post to talk about reasons that […]

February 15, 2018

TOWARD A STRONG AND THRIVING MARRIAGE

A preacher once said, “No marriage is perfect. In fact, even if marriage is made up in heaven, so are thunder and lightning.” Did you know that there are roughly around 200,000 books on Amazon.com on the topic “how to build strong marriages”? Yet even with all these resources, you still wonder why some marriages click and why some tick away like a time bomb. We all just want our marriages to last, to finish strong. We all want a marriage that is growing and vigorous! The percentage of those who marry with the goal of seeing their marriage […]

February 13, 2018

Do you care about the Quality or Health of your Church?

Assessing the most important thing your church needs right now for greater fruitfulness requires a certain attitude of heart: Jesus said: “I will build my church.” (Mt. 16:18). Pastors are called to be God’s Co-Workers in that project (1 Cor 3:9). That means: Jesus gave you responsibility over his church, so your role is ‘stewardship’. As good ‘stewards’, we need to re-evaluate what Church is about, according to Jesus’ modeling and instructions to his disciples. Will you agree that it is about… Worshipping our God, Edifying our believers, Caring for and relieving people’s pains and problems, Proclaiming the Good News? […]

October 31, 2017

Refocusing on Evangelism: Prescription for Missional Astigmatism Part II by Dr. Ramesh Richard

The Power of the Gospel Since people move from the lost side of “God’s and-yet bridge” to the right side, the power of the gospel to change a life is the result of salvation. Their biblical status, and even their existential situation, is changed in the exchange. For example, “guilty” is not only a divine verdict but also a personal feeling. When unbelievers embrace the gospel, both the theological verdict and personal feeling of guilt are changed to “forgiven.” Yes, they are theologically forgiven by God, but they also sense being forgiven by God. “To us who are being saved […]

October 30, 2017

Refocusing on Evangelism: Prescription for Missional Astigmatism Part I by Dr. Ramesh Richard

Please note: this article appeared originally in the Missio Nexxus publication, an organization attempting to return the North American missions community to the basics of evangelism, discipleship and church planting at its 100th anniversary year. The Christian Faith experiences weakness, even rapid waning when evangelism is lost in the heart, mind, and activity of its adherents. Christianity on both sides of the North Atlantic arc provides empirical proof of evangelistic neglect leading to missional collapse, and dare I remark, civilizational decline. First, then a confession, and then some convictions for your personal and agency considerations toward spiritual and organizational restructure.[1] “Uncorrected […]

September 20, 2017

Two Factors that are Killing Your Church’s Growth

by Aaron Buer blog reposted courtesy of Breeze. Here’s a question: Why is it that some churches grow and others don’t? In many cases, growing churches and stagnant churches look almost identical from the outside. Similar buildings. Similar worship style. Similar budgets. Similar locations. So what’s the difference? Why is it that some grow and others don’t? Something that I’ve noticed through interacting with different churches is that growing churches are typically structured differently than stagnant or declining churches. Growing churches either never had, or at some point shed their start-up structural configuration, while stagnant or declining churches were never […]

September 14, 2017

Leading and Managing People in the Church

(Leading and Managing People in the Church is taken from Chapter 6 in Barry Voss’ Management for Church Leaders™ Volume #1 Training Manual, ©2010.) “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31 The Golden Rule. It seems that we all know Luke 6:31 so well yet are unable to keep it most of the time. The church is a people business that is based upon relationships – with God and with each other. Jesus taught us this principle so we might live in harmony with each other, and with God, and to demonstrate to the world […]

August 17, 2017

Waiting on God: A Devotional for the Weary

by Rev. Steve Kok Waiting on God isn’t always easy. Every day people all around the world are dissatisfied with the way their life’s journey is unfolding. Learning to trust God means believing God’s timing is always perfect. He never fails. God is never late and God is never early. Of course, we don’t ever want God to be late, but there are some who pray for God to send early miracles. An early release of answered prayers sounds great, but it wouldn’t be perfect. When you get discouraged while waiting, don’t try to find ways to rush God. You […]