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…
How do we grow our members from converts to disciples? How do we lead our churches in the process of growing disciples? In the first part we said that this process is not automatic. If we don’t have a discipleship process/plan in place we are presuming that it will just…
This is part three of implementing a Discipleship Design in your church. I would love to hear some of your thoughts and ideas! Here are some challenges we face as we seek to grow our discipleship ministry. I faced these as a pastor and believe they are germane to most…
In our last blog, we talked about three reasons to develop a discipleship strategy in your church. Reason one was…Jesus said so. Reason two…It Works. Reason three…It stops fall out by maturing your people. Now let’s look at some practical helps to jump-start your discipleship ministry. First, know that every…
“We desperately need more leaders working in our church today,” the minister of education complained at the Monday morning staff meeting at First Baptist Everywhere Church. “You are right on target; we’re burning out the 20% that are doing 80% of the church’s work,” chimed in the youth pastor. “My…
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…
Have you ever thought about what makes a church healthy? In our last post, we mentioned that two ingredients in a healthy church are UNITY and DIVERSITY. Although diverse people from various walks of life usually make up a church, they can still be unified through the Holy Spirit. In…
I have been a pastor for eighteen years in the state of Kentucky. In my current role with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, I travel around the state and work with churches of all shapes and sizes. In my travels, I’ve seen and heard of churches I would describe as “healthy”…
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…
I recently read an article by Rick Warren called, Seven Errors to Avoid if You Want Your Ministry to Last. The title got my attention, and as usual, Rick hit the nail squarely on the head. Rick wrote, “A lot of ministries begin with a bang, then explode with new growth.…
Two encounters are critical. First, the leader encounters God in His Word and is changed. Second, the leader guides the group to have a life-changing encounter.
In John 13:34-35, three times Jesus said, “Love one another.” Your group is the ideal place to practice and launch the kind of love for one another that shows the world that we are His disciples.