Growing up in Texas during the Southern Baptist Iron Age, I learned this bit of gospel doggerel somewhere between Sunday School, Vacation Bible School or Romper Room (Google it) and the hand-signals that accompanied it: Here is the church, Here…
Contrary to what you’ve heard, study finds churches thrive with racial diversity
Having a racially diverse congregation offers a path toward church growth, according to comprehensive study of The United Methodist Church. The national study found that racially diverse congregations are more likely to have better attendance and membership growth, especially if…
Tell the Jesus story and stop worrying about numerical growth, historian advises
As if churches didn’t have enough challenges in the 21st century, COVID-19 has added insult to injury, Bill Leonard told participants in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly June 26.
Are our churches and their leaders ready for the 2020s?
Rather than thinking of turnaround as simply a reversal of numerical decline, the real turnaround for congregations that thrive in the next decade will be a move from irrelevance to relevance in the lives of their constituents and their communities.
Unfocused: The name of these congregations is Legion
When I say, “Hello, my name is George, and I am a Facebook addict,” the proper response from a 12-step group is, “Hello, George.” I love posting on Facebook and sharing with folks what is going on, and particularly sharing…
More than 80 percent of all church pastors should resign if …
The commonly accepted criteria for pastors’ leadership is that they bring a great vision with them when they become leader of a congregation, they know how to get people to follow their vision, and the results are a numerically growing,…
Why New York needs churches
When my stylist at Supercuts finds out that I have only lived in Brooklyn for five months, she offers to explain New York to me. She looks me in the eye and says, “If you love New York, she will…
Of presidents and popes: how we’re looking too high
I know a pastor who left a large, suburban church where he served for 25 years to plant a new church in one of the poorest areas of town. He joined with another non-profit and they formed a new LLC…
Beer, Harry Potter and the future of faith
“We’re new to the area” he said. “We moved here to plant a church.” When I asked him where they were planting the church, he mentioned a nearby development where the cheapest loft is $190,000 and the houses start at…