Church & Ministry equips leaders and everyday believers to build healthy, gospel-centered congregations. Explore biblically grounded articles on church leadership, preaching and teaching, eldership, staff and volunteer development, discipleship systems, small groups, church planting, church growth, and ministry strategy. You’ll also find practical guidance for navigating transitions, cultivating congregational health, and serving your community with wisdom and compassion. Whether you’re a pastor, elder, ministry staff member, volunteer leader, or church member who wants to help your church thrive, this hub brings together resources to strengthen the local church and advance Christ’s mission.
April 28, 2011
New City Church of Los Angeles (CA) held its third-annual Downtown Easter Fest on Sunday afternoon. The event, designed for the entire community, included live music, a picnic lunch, an Easter egg hunt, games, crafts, a sack race, and more””free to everyone.
April 28, 2011
First Christian Church (Canton, OH) and RiverTree Christian Church (Massillon, OH) celebrated Easter together this past Sunday. “FCC planted RiverTree more than forty years ago!” the churches share. “We believe we share a common mission and vision from God and want to take steps to build our partnership.” Instead of one huge gathering, each congregation held its own worship services; Scott Rosen and Greg Nettle, senior pastors of the two churches, drove back and forth to “team preach” at each one. The multisite campuses of each church received the same message via video.
April 22, 2011
On April 14, Chancey Road Christian Church (Zephyrhills, FL) hosted the county”s first-ever “Homeless Connect” event. The day included opportunities for the homeless of Pasco County to receive haircuts, apply for housing and food stamps, get clothes and groceries, and seek legal advice or medical care. More than 600 people attended the event. CRCC will also be the county”s first site to offer portable showers for the homeless. Read more here!
April 21, 2011
This listing of 74 churches that averaged 500-999 for worship in 2010 includes church name, city, senior minister, Web site, average attendance, and number of baptisms. (This is not a complete listing of such churches; it is a listing of Large-Sized Churches that participated in our survey.) Click here to look at the chart of 2010 LARGE-SIZED CHURCHES.
April 20, 2011
By Kent E. Fillinger The Church Size Matrix looks at six types of organizational change that take place as a church grows. In Part 1 of this article (April 10/17), we looked at two of these changes, Orientation and Structure. This week we consider the remaining four. Minister”s Role In his book One Size Doesn”t Fit All, Gary McIntosh wrote, “As the size of a church increases, the perception of a pastor changes from an emphasis on relational skills, to functional skills, to leadership skills.” It is essential, therefore, to understand the progression of roles required by the senior minister
April 19, 2011
By Kent E. Fillinger Less than 20 years ago, a megachurch was an anomaly. Today there are roughly 1,500 Protestant megachurches””56 from among the Christian churches and churches of Christ, representing a 250 percent increase from the 16 megachurches recorded in 1997, the first year Christian Standard reported megachurch attendances. But while the number of megachurches has dramatically increased during the past decade, the size of the average church has not changed since 1998. The median conservative Protestant church in the United States has 117 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings. The median refers to the point at which
April 17, 2011
By Brad Dupray At an annual growth rate of 65 percent, Real Life Christian Church of Clermont, Florida, was the fastest-growing megachurch in Christian Standard”s survey a year ago. Justin Miller came to Christ at age 9 at First Christian Church, as Real Life was formerly known. As Justin describes it, he came into ministry “through the “˜doggie door” of church leadership.” Asked to serve the youth of the church as a volunteer, he eventually was called to serve as senior pastor in 2002. Since that time the church has grown from about 200 to its current attendance of about
April 11, 2011
By Kent E. Fillinger Bob Smith was eager to see a new church planted in his hometown of Brighton, Michigan. Brighton is located in Livingston County, which at the time was one of the fastest-growing counties in America. Smith believed a new church was needed to reach the new people who were moving in. But Smith was neither a preacher nor a church planter. Smith classified himself as “just a cop.” Smith raised $50,000 in seed money. He created homemade brochures touting the need for a church plant in Brighton, and he started to attend Exponential, the national church planting
April 10, 2011
By Kent E. Fillinger An apple doesn”t fall far from the tree. The Crossing, A Christian Church, located in the southwest quadrant of Las Vegas, Nevada, embodies this idiom. The Crossing was planted by Canyon Ridge Christian Church on September 24, 2000, and is the youngest megachurch with an average worship attendance of 2,224 last year. Canyon Ridge, located in the northwest valley of Las Vegas, was birthed by Central Christian Church in 1993 and averaged almost 6,000 in attendance last year. Central Christian, also in Las Vegas, averaged close to 18,000 in worship last year. Those are some great
April 8, 2011
By Edward Sanders While I was in school, I paid the bills by selling men”s suits. At the end of my shift, it was rather easy to see whether we had a good day selling. Every night at closing, someone would count the suits. A dozen fewer suits meant we were successful and our efforts had paid off. I no longer sell men”s suits. I work at a church. One Monday I was sitting at my computer when the attendance and offering numbers for the weekend services came through. I opened the document and tried to grasp the trend for
April 7, 2011
Our annual megachurch chart is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s most popular features. This year there are more than 100 churches listed as megachurches (those with 2,000 or more in weekly attendance) or emerging megachurches (those with average attendance of 1,000 to 1,999). Click here to look at the chart of the 2010 Megachurches and Emerging Megachuches.
April 6, 2011
By Kent E. Fillinger A Dilbert cartoon recently featured Dogbert, the consultant, standing in front of a projection screen asking, “Where does your company fit on this comprehensive list?” The list on the screen included, in order: “Facebook, China, Irrelevant.” The next frame showed three bug-eyed employees, followed by a third frame in which Dogbert says, “Now let”s form breakout groups to fantasize about being relevant.” Just as Dilbert”s mythical company is identified as being irrelevant in the business world, the church has been declared irrelevant by our culture, and even by other Christ followers for decades. A quick scan
March 30, 2011
Indian Creek Christian Church (Indianapolis, IN) recently launched a new ministry for police officers, their spouses, and families. The Creek developed the ministry to help this group with challenges like odd work hours and bringing difficult experiences home from the job. All active and retired police officers and their families were invited to join the ministry and share support and encouragement.
March 30, 2011
This past Sunday, Churchill Meadows Christian Church (Mississauga, Ontario) celebrated the grand opening of their new building. Senior minister Jim Tune and his wife, Claudia, planted CMCC in 2001 and the church broke ground on the building in June 2008. The project””Church Development Fund“s first international loan””will provide the first permanent facility for Churchill Meadows, which has grown to be the largest independent Christian church in Canada.
March 25, 2011
By Jennifer Taylor Not one but TWO new campuses of Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL) launched this past weekend! Campus pastor Dave Richa and his team rehabbed the former Shale Harbor Church in Lemont, IL. “Currently, Shale Harbor has multiple small church communities around the country,” says an article about the new site. “When Shale Harbor members felt the Lemont church wasn”t realizing its redemptive potential, they sought out the partnership with Community Christian, said Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of Community Christian Church.” The launch team included people from both Shale Harbor and CCC. Community also launched a new campus
March 25, 2011
Last week, the Amity (OR) Church of Christ was recognized by Rep. Jim Weidner of the Oregon House of Representatives for “success in exemplary community involvement.” This recognition came as the result of ACC’s response to victims of a recent fire that destroyed a local apartment building, displacing several low-income residents. ACC’s outreach ministry took donations for the fire victims through “Lydia’s Closet” (ACC’s clothes closet ministry), and by setting up a fund at a local bank to help the fire victims with financial needs.
March 11, 2011
By Jennifer Taylor The ministry”s new “glocal” initiative combines global partnerships with local church planting. The project is starting in April with four new churches launching near Manta, Ecuador. Stadia is working with Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry, and Camino de Santidad, a church planting movement that has already started 25 churches. “About 5,000 people live in each of the villages we”ve chosen, but there are no churches of any kind,” Stadia shares. “Several lack wells to provide drinking water; they all lack schools and health care.” Partnership with Camino and Compassion will not only create new churches
This past Sunday churchgoers received some great food and a special blessing. After the worship service, the youth group at River Hill Church of Christ (Monongahela, PA) surprised the congregation with a pancake breakfast. “As we took our seats, the youth asked us to sit quietly and remember Jesus” example of service when he washed the disciples” feet,” the church shares. “Then they made their way around the room and washed our hands and prayed for each of us individually. . . . They had [also] written a personal letter to every person at the breakfast, thanking us for our
March 7, 2011
By David Roadcup Shepherding. Discipleship. Member development and conservation. Church leaders know each of these functions is critical if their congregation is to be healthy and fruitful. We know assimilation and development of individual Christians is important, because we”ve read the Scriptures that explain what should happen in the lives of those we evangelize. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), Jesus clearly indicates that we are to teach new believers “to observe all that I commanded you.”1 Teaching and development need to occur after evangelism. Colossians is replete with the apostle Paul”s desire for the believer”s maturity. Paul writes, “We proclaim
March 6, 2011
By Eric Bingaman As I studied the faces of my small group family, I began to reflect on the makeup of our group. These were not new Christians finding community for the first time. This was a small group of ordained ministers, elders, and deacons who had spent most of their life in the church””the smaller church””and for the first time were beginning to catch a glimpse of the community God has called his church to live in. As our small group was wrapping up for the evening, we held hands and prepared to pray for one another. That is
Sponsored
Sponsored
Sponsored
July 21, 2026
David Faust
July 21, 2026
Tyler McKenzie
July 21, 2026
Anne Bachle Fifer