Church Growth
The Top 8 Reasons Most Churches Never Break the 200 Attendance Mark
While social media and even traditional media are still preoccupied with mega churches and multi-site churches, the reality is that most churches in North America are quite small. The Barna Group pegs the average Protestant church size in America at…
5 Good Reasons A Church Should Close
It’s no secret that thousands of churches close every year. Sadly, there are a myriad of reasons why – a dwindling congregation, lack of resources, moral failure, or absence of a succession plan, are just a few of the common…
5 Ways Tracking Church Attendance Messes With Your Soul
If you’ve spent more than 10 minutes in church leadership, you’re aware of the tension that tracking church attendance creates inside you and around you. Sure, for starters, the way other leaders talk about numbers is an easy gateway for…
7 Things That Get Harder as Your Church Grows
Ever think that growth will solve all your problems? It’s tempting to believe that. I know, because I still fall into that line of thinking unless I stop myself. I’d be the first to admit that I’d rather be part…
How to Lose A First-Time Guest in 10 Minutes or Less
It’s hard to believe, but according to people who study these things, first-time guests to your church make up their minds whether they’re coming back or not in the first ten minutes of their visit. Think about that. Before they…
9 Signs Your Church is Stalling Out
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether or not your church or organization is making progress or whether it’s about to stall out. Sure, you can look at attendance and giving numbers. But by then…it’s often too late. The damage is done…
7 Things Christians Should Give Up To Reach Unchurched People
So you want your church to reach people who don’t go to church. That’s wonderful because that’s basically the mission of the church: to share the love of Christ with the world in the hopes everyone will come into a relationship with…
5 Ways Judgmental Christians Are Killing Your Church
Judged anyone lately? Sadly, the answer for most of us (including me) is… yes. From the guy who cut you off in traffic, to the off-beat person who’s not picking up the social cues you’re sending, to your weed-smoking neighbour……
4 Misleading Ways to Measure Church Health…And a Guide That Can Help
By Tony Morgan Today’s post is a guest post by Tony Morgan, founder and Chief Strategic Officer of The UnStuck Group. Recently on Episode 108 of Carey’s leadership podcast, Carey and I discussed why churches get stuck, and how to get your…
5 Tell-Tale Signs Your Congregation Is Insider-Focused
So many churches that aren’t growing wonder why they’re not growing. Maybe you’ve wondered the same thing about your church or a friend’s church. Of course, people point to many reasons why their church isn’t growing (I cover 10 frequent reasons in…
Thoughts on How to Be the Church in An Age of Terror and Tragedy
Like me, you hope and pray that tragedies like the ones we witness far too frequently these days would just stop and go away…forever. Our hearts break far too often these days because of the senseless rage of a lone gunman…
5 Key Differences Between Church Shoppers and the Unchurched
Every week you hope to have new people at your church. But there’s a world of difference between reaching the unchurched and attracting serial church shoppers. While it’s easy to think of a visitor as simply a ‘visitor,’ not all visitors…