Tag: church

5 Barriers to Church Growth

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Growth

Is your church growing? Are people regularly coming to saving faith in Jesus as a result of the outreach of your church? If not, then why not? In the early days of the church it was common to see people come to Christ that resulted in growing churches. Look at Luke’s description of what took place:

47….And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47 (NKJV) 

It seems clear that the Lord wants the church to grow because the Lord loves people! Standing in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus told the disciples, “I will build my Church”  (Matthew 16:18, NKJV) and the Apostle Paul reminded us that Christ is, in fact, “the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23, ESV).

Instead of focusing on what I can do to help my church to grow, it may be better, in light of Scripture, to focus on what is keeping my church from growing. In other words, what barriers exist that are holding my church back from the natural growth God desires and intends?

Nelson Searcy says:

Your job is not to force growth. When you think growth is your responsibility, you will inevitably make bad decisions. Church growth is ultimately not about what we can do in our own power; it’s about God’s power and His choice to work through us. Refuse to settle for anything less than God’s vision for your church.

5 Barriers to Church Growth

1. The Gospel is not presented clearly. Every sermon and every church service is an opportunity to present the Gospel message to those in attendance. The Gospel is a beautiful reminder to believers of the grace of God and the only hope for those who are unsaved. We should present it clearly and consistently.

2. The Gospel is not presented passionately. The Gospel is not merely a business transaction between God and us–it is the “Good News”! We don’t need to fake an over-the-top presentation, but surely we can present the Gospel with a tender heart and sincerity.

3. The focus of the church is entirely inward. Having an inward focus is not wrong, but having an entirely inward focus is sinful! Yes, those of us who are believers also need the teaching and ministries of the church. We often refer to that as discipleship! But, a healthy church also focuses on evangelism and ministry. People need to be saved and we have the saving message.

4. The church does not pray earnestly. In Matthew 9:37-38 (ESV), Jesus says “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus clearly connects prayer to a bountiful harvest. The church must pray earnestly!

5. The church is not friendly to guests. People are not merely looking for a friendly church; they’re looking to make friends at church. We should be very intentional about getting to know guests. We should invite them to lunch and invite them to attend again. Every church should have a systematic way of guest follow-up, but sometimes the most effective efforts are those that are organic.

Best Bible Reading Plans

Posted in Discipleship, Worship3 Comments

Have you ever read through the whole Bible? Many Christians have followed Christ for decades, yet have never read the Bible in its entirety. There are several printed plans, web-based plans, and Bible apps that make it easier than ever. How about reading the entire Bible in 2024?

4 Types of Bible Reading Plans

1. Printed plans. There are numerous ways to print a Bible reading plan from an online source. One of the best sites is The Navigators. They utilize the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading plans which are some of my favorite.

2. One-Year-Bible. This Bible is designed for those who want to read through the Bible in a calendar year.

3. Online plans. Dozens (probably hundreds) of sites exist online that are dedicated to reading the Bible through in a year. Some will even email you each day with the assigned reading. Here are three good ones:  Christianity.com, BibleGateway.com, and BacktotheBible.org.

4. Bible apps. I utilize several great Bible apps for Bible reading and study. They all have Bible reading plans that are very helpful. My favorite Bible apps include: You Version, ESV, and Logos.

5 Things I Hated Doing as a Pastor

Posted in Church Chat, Church Consulting, Church Revitalization, Discipleship, Funny, Life Happens, Ministry, Preaching, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In similar posts I wrote about 6 Things I Hated Hearing as a Pastor followed by 7 Things I Loved Hearing as a Pastor. In today’s post I want to explore 5 Things I Hated DOING as a Pastor. Keep in mind that I loved being a pastor and I loved most the tasks that came along with the position, but I didn’t love everything.

5 Things I Hated Doing as a Pastor

1. Preaching on difficult topics. I preached on marriage, divorce, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, abortion, tithing, racism, prejudice, laziness, gossip, and numerous other difficult subjects, but I didn’t love doing it. As a pastor, I preferred to preach about Jesus and the encouraging passages that abound, but I knew that I was accountable to God to preach the whole Bible even when the topics were not popular or culturally acceptable.

…even when the topics were not popular or culturally acceptable.”

2. Visiting new parents in the hospital. I didn’t really hate visiting new parents, but it always felt a little awkward. I felt better visiting when the mother and the father were both present or when my wife could join me. As their pastor, I wanted to let them know that we celebrated with them on the birth of their child, but at the same time, I wanted to respect their need for privacy. As a man, I was certain that I didn’t understand everything that the new mother was going through physically and emotionally, so I wanted to give her space for rest and healing.

3. Addressing church conflict. When I faced conflict during my early years of ministry I simply prayed and hoped that it would go away. As the pastor, I began to realize that I had to lean into conflict and work towards reconciliation, but it was something that I always dreaded.

…I began to realize that I had to lean into conflict…”

4. Asking for help. In the perfect church world, all the church members would jump in and volunteer when needed. Since that rarely happened, I often had to personally ask people for help.

5. Administering church discipline. The Bible clearly teaches that there are times when church discipline is required. The purpose of discipline is to help the offender discover his sin and his need for repentance. Even when church discipline was appropriate and best, it was always very difficult.

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Lead to Revitalize – Part 2 (Revitalization Series)

Posted in Assimilation, Church Chat, Church Consulting, Church Revitalization, Discipleship, Evangelism, Ministry, Preaching, WorshipLeave a comment

In the post, Lead to Revitalize – Part 1, we looked at the first 5 characteristics possessed by pastors who lead churches to experience significant revitalization and health. In this post, we will look at 5 additional characteristics. These 10 characteristics are listed in random order and all are equally important. We developed resources on this topic in our book entitled Lead to Revitalize: 15 Practices of a Revitalization Leader. 

10 CHARACTERISTICS OF A REVITALIZATION PASTOR

6.  Revitalization pastors demonstrate dependence on God.  This should not surprise anyone! The Scriptures clearly teach our need for the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. Revitalization pastors seem to understand this fully because they consistently spend time with God in Bible reading and prayer, they often cry out to God for His blessing on the ministries of the church, and they lead the church to give God the glory when they experience a spiritual “win” as a congregation.

7.  Revitalization pastors are Lifelong Learners.  You’ve heard the saying “leaders are readers.” We would add the saying “revitalization pastors are lifelong learners.” Even those who are not avid readers find other ways to learn. They often listen to other pastor’s sermons, attend conferences, participate in state convention growth opportunities, and meet with other pastors to learn best practices.

8.  Revitalization pastors develop leaders and laborers in the church.  Revitalization pastors agree with the Apostle Paul that one of the main roles of a pastor is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12, ESV). As a result, they develop a leadership development strategy for the church, regularly delegate ministry responsibilities to trusted people, and personally mentor a group of men in the congregation.

9.  Revitalization pastors lead the church to celebrate wins.  They celebrate wins by showing appreciation to church volunteers who serve faithfully. They sometimes ask for testimonies of where people recently saw God at work. They regularly focus on positive things that happen in the life of the church.

10.  Revitalization pastors lead the church to implement change.  Revitalization pastors spent time thoroughly explaining the reason behind a needed change and invested extra time with people who were slow to accept a needed change. They bathed proposed changes in significant prayer and resisted moving too quickly when making a major change.

Revitalization pastors come in all shapes and sizes, but they share these characteristics. There is a desperate need for Godly leadership in the local church. It is not enough for a pastor to develop a vision for revitalization, but he must LEAD the people to fulfill that vision. In many cases, it takes years to see stagnant churches become vibrant and healthy, so revitalization pastors tend to have longer tenures. Many studies show a relationship between pastoral tenure and church health.

Lead to Revitalize – Part 1 (Revitalization Series)

Posted in Assimilation, Church Chat, Church Consulting, Church Revitalization, Discipleship, Evangelism, Ministry, Preaching1 Comment

Over the past few years, the Regional Consultants of the Church Consulting and Revitalization Team and I noticed that pastors who successfully led their churches to experience revitalization possessed consistent characteristics. We developed resources on this topic and recently wrote a book entitled Lead to Revitalize: 15 Practices of a Revitalization Leader. The list only scratches the surface, but these ten characteristics stand out to us. I will detail these in a two-part blog post. Here is part one:

10 CHARACTERISTICS OF A REVITALIZATION PASTOR

1.  Revitalization pastors lean into conflict.  Some pastors avoid conflict at all costs. They may develop a brilliant, God-given vision for the future of the church, but they scrap it just as soon as one or two people are critical. Revitalization pastors do not necessarily like conflict, but they are willing to face it in order to fulfill the God-given vision.

2.  Revitalization pastors are willing to take risks. It’s risky to help a church understand that they are being ineffective. It’s rarely pleasant to confront difficult people or to seek restoration of a broken relationship, but revitalization pastors do what’s right instead of merely doing what’s easy and convenient.

3.  Revitalization pastors work hard on church relationships. As a child, most of us learned the little hand visual that accompanied the saying “here is the church, here is the steeple, open the door and here are the people.” As adults, we know that the symbolism is lacking because the church is not a building; the church IS the people. Revitalization pastors understand that building a church means building people.

4.  Revitalization pastors take the lead in evangelism. A church cannot be revitalized without reaching new people with the Gospel. A revitalization pastor places emphasis on evangelism and leads by example in this area. Methods of evangelism vary from church to church and community to community, but churches experiencing revitalization are making new converts for Christ.

5.  Revitalization pastors lead with a vision. Visions are sometimes written, sometimes spoken, and sometimes written and spoken! Revitalization pastors have a God-given vision for the church’s future and they share it regularly with the church.

For more information please contact me.

Click on image to purchase a copy of Lead to Revitalize.