Is Closing a Church Ever a Good Thing?
Tim Snyder of the Lewis Center Staff writes that closing a church often brings conflict, denial, and shame. But death is a natural passage in…
Browsing: Fruitfulness
Articles
Is Your Congregation a Swamp, a Reservoir, or a Canal?
Is your congregation cut off and inwardly focused? Primarily a storehouse of resources? Or a connector that brings things together? The images of swamp, reservoir,…
Episode 47: “The New Face of Missional Ministry” featuring Tom Berlin
How can a congregation be more effective in developing a missional presence? In this episode we speak with Tom Berlin, lead pastor at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia, about how being adaptive can help churches live into a more fruitful missional sensibility.
5 Ways to Help Church Staff Succeed
How can your congregation help those in paid staff roles perform most effectively? Ann Michel of the Lewis Center staff outlines five ways to clarify…
3 Strategies for Leading Beyond Your Blind Spots
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says we all have characteristics that others recognize but we can’t quite see in ourselves. Effective leaders see past these…
Episode 32: “Becoming a Rapidly Growing Church” featuring Matt Miofsky
Why do some congregations grow more quickly than others? In this episode we speak with Matt Miofsky, founding and lead pastor of The Gathering in St. Louis, about the book he wrote with Jason Byassee, 8 Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches.
Should a Church Close?
Sustainability is increasingly difficult for the ever increasing number of churches worshipping small numbers each week. Lovett Weems captures the dilemma for church leaders and…
Why Attendance and Revenue Figures Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Worship attendance and revenue figures don’t tell the whole story in gauging your church’s effectiveness. Rich Birch suggests some novel indicators that can reveal growth…
Eliminating the Downward Drag of Ministry Clutter
Michael Kurtz explains that churches are quick to add new programs but slow to eliminate older ones, creating ministry clutter and program overload. Regular pruning…
5 Practices for Fruitful Congregations in a Post-Attractional Era
Robert Schnase’s five key practices — radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity — have helped thousands of…
