Megachurches as Resources for Learning
By Asa J. Lee

In their new book, Beyond Megachurch Myths (Jossey-Bass, 2007), Hartford Seminary Professor Scott Thumma and Leadership Network executive Dave Travis debunk many of the common misconceptions about the “mega” movement in U.S. Christianity. Nine central chapters expose some commonly held biases about megachurches – that, for example, all megachurches are the same, that they are not grounded in orthodox Christian teachings, and that they impact negatively on neighboring congregations. In tackling these misconceptions, the text presents megachurches as intentionally diverse, theologically sound, socially concerned, and rapidly growing contemporary manifestations of the church.

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An Even Better Way to Track Attendance in the New Year
by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

One of the key roles of a leader is to help define reality. But leaders must themselves interpret reality in meaningful ways. Understanding worship attendance trends is critical to defining reality for congregations, but often churches do not maintain worship statistics in ways that facilitate the most helpful comparisons.

A year ago, Leading Ideas offered a model for tracking worship attendance. Instead of the usual Sunday-by-Sunday comparison, this model uses year-to-date figures. The key advantage of this system is that it avoids looking at one Sunday in isolation. As the year progresses, the trends become more and more accurate, but also more difficult to change by the end of the year. The flip side of this, however, is that the early weeks of the year are still subject to atypical variations.

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Whenever someone leaves a staff position, it is a good opportunity to reassess the position and its purposes. Some possible questions may be:

What are all the staff needs we currently have,
including those covered by this position?

Which ones are most essential to cover at this time?

How might we use this opening, plus other restructuring or redefining of positions, to address as many needs as we can?

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2008 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).