Articles for tag: Best Practices

May 21, 2016

Michael C. Mack

How Will You Adapt to the Decline in Senior Adult Ministries?

By Michael C. Mack Studies point to a steep decline in senior adult ministries in churches. “As the large baby boomer generation moves into their older years,” says Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, “they will resist any suggestion that they are senior adults, no matter how senior they may be.” Churches must be prepared to adapt to this new reality. If they continue to minister to senior adults as they always have, says Rainer, they are headed for failure. In February we asked Best Practices readers, both in print and in our Facebook group (www.facebook.com/BestMinistryPractices), “What are you

May 20, 2016

Michael C. Mack

Three Options to Save an Endangered Church from Extinction

By Michael C. Mack A cultural and economic storm threatens many small and midsize churches. “Unless we respond to this coming tsunami,” says Karl Vaters, pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California, “churches like mine will soon be as rare as printed newspapers, landline phones, and brick-and-mortar bookstores.” Especially churches in large metropolitan areas with a mortgage and a pastor”™s salary to pay, will start to disappear over the next couple of decades, says Vaters in the fall 2015 issue of Leadership Journal. Cornerstone has experienced a turnaround in attendance, number of volunteers, and ministry over the past

May 5, 2016

Michael C. Mack

Reconnect, Reignite, and Resurrect Marriages

By Michael C. Mack “Marriage should be honored by all” (Hebrews 13:4). May is National Date Your Mate Month. Use this month strategically to promote and support strong marriages. The possibilities for your plans are as bountiful as your imagination and an Internet search on Christian marriage ministry ideas! For example, offer a special marriage workshop, providing a meal, music, and child care. Or provide free child care at the church building so couples can plan their own romantic date night. North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, offers quarterly date nights called MarriedLife. The purpose is to “help people

May 1, 2016

Michael C. Mack

May Ministry Ideas

By Michael C. Mack National Day of Prayer””May 5: Consider visiting local businesses and government officials to ask how you may pray for them. Gather people on that day to ask God”™s blessings on your community. The National Day of Prayer, observed annually on the first Thursday of May in the United States, invites people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. Mother”™s Day””May 8: Churches typically focus their Mother”™s Day observance on moms and their families who attend

March 1, 2015

Christian Standard

Best Practices for Short-Term Mission Trips

By Michael C. Mack According to some estimations, about 2 million people spend about $1.5 billion each year to go on short-term mission trips. Richard Stearns, president of World Vision U.S. and author of The Hole in Our Gospel: The Answer that Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World, discusses both the pros and cons of such trips. World Vision does not lead short-term mission trips, but it does lead “Vision Trips” designed as educational journeys to expose the participants to World Vision”s work in other countries while building relationships between North American partners and those living in

March 1, 2015

Michael C. Mack

March Madness and More

By Michael C. Mack Here are five ministry ideas you can use this March to reach out to your community. These can be accomplished in small groups, Sunday school classes, teams, or by the whole church. “¢ March Forth Day: March 4 is “Do Something Day!” Plan a serving event to march forth into your community with the good news! “¢ March Ministry Madness: This is a ministry fair with a basketball theme. Imagine people together in one room, sitting at round tables, eating and talking, dreaming and planning, developing ministry ideas, creating groups and teams and task forces. “¢

September 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

You Might Be a Pastor at a Country Church If . . .

By Mark Wesner “¢ there are more horses than people in your county. “¢ your “auxiliary parking lot” is a cornfield. “¢ the directions to your church building include the words “covered bridge.” “¢ you have a church van . . . that you own. “¢ there”s a hitching post in your parking lot. “¢ you have two friends in the church in whom you can confide as accountability partners, and one of them is a third-grader. “¢ you pray that none of your church members” names shows up in the local newspaper”s weekly “Police Blotter” column. “¢ you pray

September 1, 2012

Christian Standard

Both Approaches Can Be Successful

By Jennifer Johnson I like Matthew Barnett“s philosophy of serving: “Find a need and fill it.” For Barnett, founder of The Dream Center in Los Angeles, the motto has worked well. Since its launch in 1994, the center has served millions of poor, addicted, homeless, and broken people. Thousands of volunteers lead ministries ranging from residential rehab to “Adopt-A-Block” teams in 35 locations across the city. I also like their story: Pastor Matthew”s outreach to the gangs surrounding the church”s iconic building, the organic growth of ministries developed by members, and its identity as “the church that never sleeps.” But

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