One of the reasons churches don’t grow is because leaders use the same methods to reach everyone in their community. As Pastors, want to believe there’s infinite diversity with people…and that’s true individually. However, when it comes to people’s relationship with your church, everyone falls into one of three categories. This is great news for you because it allows you to reach each group with specific strategies that attract them to your church. I recorded this short video to share some of the practical strategies we employ that make outreach a lot easier. You can watch the video here… P.S. … Read More
A Shocking Church Growth Statistic
I shared a statistic with a group of leaders that floored them. The worst part is, I told them there’s nothing they can do to stop it. What is it? It’s that 10%-15% of your church will leave due to attrition. Think about that… If you’re a church of 700 people, that means you’ll need to reach 70 new people every year just to stay the same. 10%-15% is the average. If you minister in a metropolitan community like I do, that number can be closer to 20%-25%. Why is attrition as high as it is? Because people get transferred, … Read More
3 Factors That Keep Churches Small
I’ve worked with hundreds of churches over the last few years. Some large. Some small. Many somewhere in between. In my travels I’ve learned what keeps many churches small. It’s not theology. It’s not financial resources. Instead, I’ve noticed 3 factors in churches that keep growing (and the opposite in those who don’t): 1. An earnest desire for leaders to keep learning new skills 2. A relentless commitment to reach out to those far from God 3. An effective strategy for evangelism and discipleship I’m not saying every church that does these things grows to 10,000 people, … Read More
Branding Your Church For Growth
Branding is such a buzzword these days that I’d love to just write it off all together. The problem is, branding matters. Most people think branding is your logo, colors, and website design. It’s so much more… Your branding is the story you’re telling your community about who you are what you stand for. It’s how you explain to people who have never attended the ways you’re able to serve them. I know this, I work with hundreds of churches every year and many times, the branding is saying something the church doesn’t want to say. And this becomes a barrier to new people to attend. You need … Read More
Church Is Like A Video Game… (sort of)
Probably dating myself but ok, hands down, my absolute favorite all time Atari game is Pitfall. It was the coolest game ever. You swung on vines. You hopped on the heads of alligators. You jumped on rolling logs. The goal? Get through the jungle and capture all of the treasures before time runs out. When I started playing Pitfall my brother told me, “Whatever you do, don’t fall into the quicksand.” Sure enough, staying out of the quicksand was one of the toughest parts of the game. In similar fashion, I planted my church 14 years ago and staying out … Read More
Albert Einstein Could Help Your Church…
In 2004 our church was stuck. We had grown at a good rate for our first 3 years and then we hit “the wall”. We got stuck in our growth as a church and for the next 18 months, we grew by 10 people. Ten.individual.humans. Not to sound ungrateful, but we had a whole city to reach and growing by 10 people every 18 months wasn’t going to cut it. At first I believed the “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing” myth. I learned that doesn’t work. Here’s a leadership lesson (which is a loosely based on an Albert … Read More
#1 Habit Of Highly Effective Preachers
Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, wrote: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Sounds confusing, right? But what it means is that we have a tendency as people to allow non-essentials to distract us. So, maintaining focus is key. And as a pastor, here is the essential focus that has struck me: I need to preach the Gospel every week and give people an opportunity to make a decision to come to know Jesus in our services each week. I think this is really important for several reasons: 1. … Read More
Maximizing a Pastor’s Summer
Most Pastors dread the “Summer Slump”. Typically, this is when giving and attendance fluctuate the most in a given year. Yet here’s what I have learned over the last 10 years: 1. Summer is not as bad as people make it out to be 2. You don’t have to take as big of an attendance hit (I’ll talk about in depth later) 3. With planning, you can eliminate the giving slump (More on that later) 4. The key to maximizing the Summer is understanding the trends of the Summer The basic trends of Summer are that people generally go out … Read More
Pastor Who… A Time Lord for Jesus
God calls us to be masters of our time, one of the greatest treasures He gives us. With all you have to do maybe you wish you had a TARDIS to time travel in: If so, today I’ve got time management tips #3, #4 & #5 for you and the first one is cutting down on the procrastination… Tip #3: Eat That Frog! I got this tip from a book by the same title, but the principle is so true! If eating a frog is on your list of things you have to do in a given day, here’s the … Read More
A Pastor’s Time Machine
Life is getting busier and busier. Some of us wish we could jump into one of these to get it all done: There are more and more things to distract us and here’s the hard truth… Sometimes Pastors can be the worst time managers. In reality, the nature of our calling demands that we be excellent managers of out time. So this week I’m going to share a few time management tips that have helped me be more productive in the same amount of time. Basically these are the next best thing to time travel… Tip #1: Bundle similar tasks … Read More
