Category Archives: Assimilation

Helpful tips on connecting newcomers and new members to the life of the church.

Guests-Five Follow Up Principles

By Mike James | Published: June 25, 2009

One of the most important things a church does is to follow up on guests who visit the church or any activity sponsored by the church. It is a key to church growth. Each church must customize what works best in their particular setting. Churches today are rethinking the follow up components with guests. Part [...]

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Discipleship or Great Commision Resurgence?

By Mike James | Published: June 4, 2009

On May 11, Baptist Press quoted Henry Blackaby on his thoughts about the Great Commission Resurgence.  His answers are very insightful to churches on why we are not growing and reaching this culture with the Gospel.  I am not going to be the color commentator on his comments, or put it in the “spin zone” [...]

Also posted in Church Growth, Discipleship | 2 Responses

Getting Ready for Guests part 3

By Mike James | Published: June 1, 2009

Romans 12:13 says, “Practice hospitality.”  Churches need to be places that are hospitable, friendly, loving, and welcoming.  They should be places where people smile and one can easily see the love of Jesus.    This is part three in this series on making guests feel welcome, but to be honest we will re-visit this subject [...]

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Getting Ready for Guests part 2

By Mike James | Published: May 26, 2009

Getting ready for company is an important element to growing churches.  Growing churches expect guest each Sunday and spend much energy and time getting ready for their arrival. When the James Gang have company coming to our house I usually do the vacuuming and I must tell you, I am good!  We also do a [...]

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Getting Ready for Guests part one

By Mike James | Published: May 13, 2009

Churches spend lots of energy, money, and time enhancing the worship experience.  We spend some really big bucks on sound, video projecting, lighting, banners, worship music, etc.  That is a good thing, but is it enough?  For that matter if a pastor spends 20 hours preparing for his message on Sunday, is that enough?  Does the [...]

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Reaching Young Adults

By Mike James | Published: April 21, 2009

Tobin Perry writing for Baptist Press says, “There’s a surprising new description for unchurched young adults in the United States: spiritual. Despite popular reports that young people aren’t interested in spiritual matters, newly released survey data from LifeWay Research and the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board shows the opposite to [...]

Also posted in Church Growth, Discipleship | 3 Responses

Nine Habits of Churches that Reach and Keep People part 2

By Mike James | Published: April 13, 2009

In my last blog we talked about the first four of these nine habits for reaching and keeping people based on research by Dr. Thom Rainer.  They were…Habit of Intentionality, Habit of Cultural Awareness, Habit of High Expectations, and the Habit of Clear Doctrine.  Here are the remaining five with a few brief comments by [...]

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Eight Symptoms of Church Decline part one

By Mike James | Published: April 1, 2009

It is not the newest book concerning church growth and health, but Barna’s book, Turn-Around Churches, still has lots of insightful material to help churches get back on track.  In particular, his Eight Symptoms of declining churches is still relevant in any situation. We will look at the first four in part one. I have [...]

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Farewell

By Steve Rice | Published: October 16, 2008

Today I say farewell as the writer of 28Nineteen. On November 2, 2008, I will assume the Senior Pastor position at the First Baptist Church of Shelbyville, Kentucky. My family and I are very excited about our new assignment from the Lord. Read about our move in this Kentucky Baptist Convention article or this Western [...]

Also posted in Church Growth, Discipleship, Mentoring, Miscellaneous, New Member Classes, Personal Journey, Preaching, Resources, Spiritual Growth, Sunday School | 1 Response

Training Opportunities

By Steve Rice | Published: August 18, 2008

This past Saturday at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, the Kentucky Baptist Convention offered a variety of great training opportunities. If you missed the event, similar training is being offered at five other locations across the state. One of the discipleship faculty was Tim Holcomb, Director of Discipleship for the Tennessee Baptist Convention. [...]

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