It’s no secret there’s much brokenness in American neighborhoods, but Marvin Williams, lead pastor of Trinity Church in Lansing, Michigan, believes the Church holds the answer.
“The gospel truly is the hope of the world, and our outreach is not just good deeds or altruistic behavior,” he says. “It’s celebrating that God is alive in us! Any church that is not moving forward is doing a disservice to its community and disobeying God.”
Relaunching. Revitalizing. Replanting.
So many “re” prefixes. It gets confusing.
Let’s review our definitions. Revitalizing means an existing congregation experiences health and turnaround. Replanting typically means another church acquires a declining or dying church and starts it anew. Relaunching could be considered a hybrid approach. A declining or dying church re-starts itself. There is usually a name change, but there is not an acquisition by another church.
When Brian Moss surrendered to the call to ministry in 1985, he didn’t do it the conventional way. And he didn’t do it in the conventional timeframe.
He did it after spending nearly 20 years as a systems engineer for one of the world’s largest tech companies.
I believe church health matters much more than church growth. Healthy churches grow. They grow stronger through worship, warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, and broader through ministry.
And they also grow larger through evangelism.
Three weeks ago, a new Barna Group report surprised almost everyone.
Almost half—47 percent—of practicing Christian millennials told the research group that “it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hope that they will one day share the same faith.” (Barna defines as “practicing Christian” those who identify as Christian, agree strongly that faith is very important in their lives, and have attended church in the past month.)
Our world has no shortage of information on leadership. A Google search on the topic will produce results ranging from: “10 traits every good leader must possess” to “4 essential elements of great leadership”—and much more.
Have you ever wondered what first-time guests are thinking as they pull out of your church parking lot after the service?
The company Faith Perceptions helps churches take the guesswork out of first impressions by deploying mystery guests to churches to help them see their services through the eyes of a visitor. This allows churches to understand what can be improved so guests will be more likely to return.
While Christians say they want to exude confidence in their conversations with people from other faiths, non-Christians don’t have the same hopes for their talks with Christians.
There is a crisis in the church.
People are leaving.
And we want them to come back.
But before we ask how to get them back, we need to ask why they’re leaving in the first place.
Is the church ready for Generation Z? Maina Mwaura sat down with some members of the generation and many don’t believe the church is prepared.
They describe their generation as diverse, independent, creative, open-minded and accepting. But say they constantly struggling with anxiety and have a deserved reputation for a lack of work ethic.
