We talk a lot about growth. In articles like this, in conversations I have, and in moments when I’m speaking with leaders, the question always comes up: How do we grow? Pastors want to know how to reach more people. Leadership teams want to know how to scale what’s working. That makes sense. I’m a…

When a ministry is new, communication is usually shared, proactive, engaging, and exciting. There is often one primary voice that everyone hears from. This is one of the reasons I love working with church planters. In new ministries, everyone is excited. There has not been enough time to build layers, departments, or separation in communication.…

Sometimes churches borrow what everyone else is doing and then act like they invented it themselves. Watching it happen can be a little funny, kind of like seeing someone walk into Starbucks and order “the usual,” then claim they came up with the frappuccino. It makes sense, though. Pastors are busy, overwhelmed, pulled in fifty…

I remember the first time Frank told me about his church. He said, “We have about 60 people who show up regularly, and that’s probably a good size for us.” At the time, I thought to myself, They should be doing a lot more. They should be bigger. They should be better. But over the…

We have several coffee drinkers in our house so it is not uncommon to be at a coffee shop picking up more than one drink at a time. A while back I had one of those moments where I was grabbing several drinks, trying to load them into my car, and in the process I…

How Churches Really Grow Unless a church is unusual, it is almost always thinking about how to get more people to attend. It is part of why we put out signage, send mailers, run Facebook ads, and try to create events people will want to show up for. Churches long for greater reach, and for…

It is a common question we hear when working with churches that are experiencing change. Sometimes those changes are good and sometimes they are painful, but they almost always raise the same concern. Why are people leaving the church? There are layers to this question. There are variables that make every situation different. And while…

Mike woke up on Monday morning, the first quiet day after a chaotic Christmas season, with one question hanging over him like a weight: “How much longer can I keep doing this?” Katherine turned off the lights in the conference room after a four hour board meeting and whispered to herself, “Where are we going…

Last week a friend sent me the website of a church he had visited. He asked what I thought of it and what I believed a first time visitor might think if they landed on it. I always try to look for the positives first. I really do. I try to find anything that celebrates…

This might sound like a funny thing to say, but sometimes the biggest competition a ministry has is within itself. When Herb walked into the room, I knew we had a challenging conversation ahead of us. Herb was in charge of the Senior Adult ministry in a church we were working with. He had a…