Barna’s Eight Symptoms of Decline, Part 2

In my last blog post we looked at four of Barna’s Eight Symptoms of declining churches.  They were; Demographic Changes, Inadequate Leadership, Poor Management, and Old Blood.  Here are the next four with a few brief comments. 5. Building Campaigns “From coast to coast, the roadside is littered with the…

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Eight Symptoms of Church Decline, Part 1

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…

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Spiritual Growth Myths, Part 2

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…

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Church Growth Myths, Part 1

How do you grow your members from converts to disciples? We often think the whole process is automatic.  People will find out for themselves how to grow in their faith. NOT! If we don’t have a discipleship process in place we are presuming that it will just happen.  It’s as…

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Jump Starting Discipleship, Part 3

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…

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Jump Starting Your Discipleship part 2

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…

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Jump Starting Your Discipleship, Part 1

“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…

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Hello

Today, I say hello as the new writer of this blog.  Let me briefly share who I am.  My role at the KBC is South Central Strategist & Discipleship/Assimilation Coordinator. Okay, it is a long, long title, but frankly I’m not into titles and you probably aren’t either. Simply put,…

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Farewell

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…

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