It’s the New Year, and most people make plans for a year more successful than the last. So lets resolve to put to rest some of the old and tired excuses, myths really, that tend to hang around unsuccessful churches and their leaders. Here are five of the most common. “We don’t need to grow.” […]
Category: Discipleship
This weekend at Nativity we’re delivering our annual Stewardship Sunday message. We put a lot of time and energy into crafting the right message that our congregation needs to hear. Jesus talked about money all the time, and if we are going to talk about Jesus, sooner or later we have to realize that money […]
Rebuilt tells the story of what happened to us, what we learned, and what we now know about growing a healthy parish. It is all about the twin exercises of discipleship and evangelization, or what we have come to call awakening the faithful, while also, and at the same time, reaching the lost- oh, and […]
This weekend at Nativity we’re hosting our annual Small Groups Launch, when we make a parish wide push to get parishioners who have been hesitating into a group. Here are just five of the reasons why small groups matter to any church. Small Groups Are an Easy Way to Start Rebuilding Plenty of studies indicate […]
If you’re a part of a church staff or other ministry and don’t live under a rock, you’ve likely come face-to-face with having to answer tough questions on morals and doctrine. Answering tough and touchy questions is just part of working for a counter-cultural Church. After decades, even centuries of debate on certain issues, you […]
I knew an enthusiastic pastor who came to a church that was brimming with potential. He had terrific ideas and couldn’t wait to get going. Fast-forward five years, he’s no longer there and all that potential remains untapped. Ever wonder how your leadership potential gets crushed? It happens easily and more often than you might […]
Healthy things grow. That’s just how life works. But looking around, there isn’t always evidence our churches are alive. In nature, growth is simple- it takes a seed, some good soil, sunlight, and water. When it comes to growing churches, it’s really not that much different in essence- the Gospel, planted in a good community, […]
What’s more challenging (and annoying) to Christians than outright hostility? Indifference. And that’s exactly the attitude of most of the unchurched people in your community (the hostile one’s are just louder). The truth is, most unchurched people you encounter do not feel morally or even spiritually bankrupt. Actually, they’re spiritually quite “comfortable.” Reaching this group […]
When it comes to growing disciples, we’ve been led to think we must choose between quantity or quality. I’m not sure where that line of thinking began, but it needs to stop. God calls our churches to multi-dimensional growth; discipleship is about going both deeper and wider. We aim to make spiritually mature disciples. Mature […]
This past week, our “Message Team” met for an all day off-site to finalize our plans for our message series for the upcoming year. The message team consists of 7 people on staff who meet each week to help develop and evaluate my weekend messages. A few times a year we take extra time to […]
