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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…
Many churches today lament worship attendance numbers that have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Lovett H. Weems Jr. says this is an unhelpful comparison. He…
What metrics are most helpful in assessing your church’s health and vitality? Susan Nienaber says that, in this new chapter of the church’s history, congregations…
How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? Doug Powe, director…
How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? Scott Thumma shares insights from ongoing research on the pandemic’s impact congregational life and health.
Baby boomers and Gen Xers are currently the most critical donor base for most congregations. James Elrod says these generations want proof that their gifts…
Allen Stanton says rural churches need better indicators of what it means to thrive. He outlines three characteristics of vital rural congregations able to lead…
In changing times standard measures of a congregation’s health may not tell the whole story. Naomi Annandale suggests a need to expand and adjust our…
Paul Nixon and Christie Latona say congregations ready to launch successful new initiatives typically possess four strands of congregational DNA — spiritual intensity, missional alignment,…
The average congregation is getting smaller with a median size of around 60 attenders, reports Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religious Research.…
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…
How can congregations more effectively practice fruitful ministry? In this episode Bishop Robert Schnase discusses his revised book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, with Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe.
Lovett H. Weems Jr. says paying attention to various indices of your congregation’s financial health is a key practice in remaining economically viable and sustaining…
Population growth is only one factor in whether churches grow, but it is a key factor. At the end of December, the U.S. Census Bureau…
Christian Coon, co-founding pastor of Urban Village Church in Chicago and author of Failing Boldly, believes that a key to fruitful ministry is the ability…
Bonnie Marden explores the importance of relationships to congregational vitality, and she suggests key questions for assessing the strength of relationships that undergird a congregation’s…
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says that churches often invest a great deal of energy in activities without ever asking how they relate to what God…
Lee Kricher, pastor of Amplify Church in Pittsburgh, says every church has things that distract members and visitors from the church’s mission. He writes that…
At the beginning of every year, many people take time to evaluate their lives and determine new priorities and directions. The same should be true…
If your life is anything like mine, you may find yourself at the beginning of the year focusing on numbers from the past year. In…
The current focus on setting numerical goals for ministry and reporting on the results is not new, though it is now greatly expanded. In the…
Church leaders may think that leading in the business world is so much simpler than in the church since there is “one bottom line” and…
The fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel contains rich imagery of the vine and the branches, an image that would have been obvious to those who…
What if you knew that your congregation were on a collision course with its demise? What would you do? Whom would you tell? How would…
Many churches today are pioneering a shift in which they are truly engaging their communities in mission. These churches are not only deploying their own…
Imagine driving a car at night and the dashboard lights go out. With the headlights on, you can still see the road immediately ahead of…
At a recent gathering, clergy and laity from several congregations were asked how they keep track of their attendance each Sunday and how they keep…
George Bullard suggests an expanded understanding of what represents real numerical growth in light of each church’s situation. A recent request for the names of…
Lovett Weems stresses the need for quantitative metrics, arguing that churches will never make the changes needed to attract new people until they commit to…
Tom Berlin explains why fruitfulness in terms of membership, discipleship, and growth are key measures of leadership effectiveness. I grew up in a town surrounded…
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.
