Good News, Bad News

Today I have good news and bad news. Reminds me of the defense attorney who said those same words to his client… “First the bad news… Your blood test came back, and your DNA is an exact match with that found at the crime scene.” “Oh, no!” cried the client.…

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Church Vitality Components

Audrey Barrick writing for the Christian Post reported an interesting new study by the United Methodist Church on what makes some churches healthy. Here are the key findings in that study. Churches with a high number of small groups, effective lay leadership, faithful pastors, and both traditional and contemporary services…

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Growing off the Plateau

We looked last week at the term plateau, church health, and church growth.  Let’s think some about how to get off the plateau. Kirk Hadaway has conducted much research over the years with Southern Baptist churches in particular. He also attempted to determine the characteristics of plateaued churches and what…

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Church Health, Growth, Plateau?

We use these terms all the time when we are attempting to share about how our churches are doing, so let’s define what we mean by these three terms: plateau, health and growth. Plateaued: A plateau is a relatively level or stable period in the life of an organization. The…

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7 Steps to a Friendlier Church

What can your church do to be even friendlier? Consider the following 7 steps: 1. Teach your members the difference between “having friends at church” and “being genuinely friendly to guests.” People come to church looking for a friend not looking for a friendly church. Churches are friendly but it…

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7 Attitudes of Stagnation

In 1870, the Methodists were having their annual conference in Indiana. The presiding Bishop was asking a group for an interpretation of current events, when the president of the college where the conference was held volunteered his input: “I think we are living in a very exciting age. I believe…

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