Discipleship-The Divine Connection

When you think of descriptive passages of Scripture that relate to discipleship, what comes to mind? Maybe Mathew 28:16-20 where Jesus said “make disciples,” or Jesus’ description of what a kingdom person is and does in the Sermon on the Mount or in one of the Gospels like Luke 9:23,…

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Driven or Led?

Are you driven or are you led?  Not in reference to whether or not you are a leader or a follower, not your personality type (we driven, high D folks know who we are!), but from a spiritual context… are you driven or led? If we walk by the Spirit…

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Discipled by the Cooperative Program

Okay, do I have your attention?  Everyone is talking about the Cooperative Program these days.  Suddenly the CP is headline news.  It’s in all our state papers and there are lots of opinions about where CP giving will go in the next five years.  My intentions are not to debate…

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Evangelism versus Discipleship

Evangelism or Discipleship? For which will your church be known? I have heard the debate before…do we want an evangelistic church or a disciple making church? Which is more important: discipleship or evangelism, and where should a church put their energy and focus? Are we to just go deep in discipleship…

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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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The VELCRO Principle, Part 3

This series of blogs will help you keep the people you reach and help you discern if your church is more like Teflon or Velcro? We have a twofold challenge…getting new people to attend and getting people to stick after they join and not slide off. Without new people coming…

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The VELCRO Principle, Part 2

These series of blogs will help you keep the people you reach and help you discern if your church is more like Teflon or Velcro? We have a twofold challenge…getting new people to attend and getting people to stick after they join and not slide off. So is your church…

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