Articles for tag: Church Health

May 16, 2014

By Will Thomas All churches count “noses” and “nickels.” That”s a good thing. Most of the time, attendance and finances provide a helpful barometer of what”s happening. But other factors also matter. Churches count what they do because they can. The harder-to-measure goals may too often remain hidden beneath the surface. Some churches look beyond the obvious. All churches could. In fact, looking beyond the obvious is probably one of the common characteristics of larger, growing churches. They know numbers for the sake of numbers seldom lead anywhere. Their leaders know a big church needs a big foundation. Churches that

May 2, 2013

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Growth

Do You Measure What Matters?

Some churches and church leaders avoid measuring ministries in the church out of fear or from a desire not to be held accountable. Are you afraid of discovering something you don”t want to know? By Kent E. Fillinger “The church is in a difficult time. But the church doesn”t understand it”s in a difficult time because it doesn”t know the truth about itself,”* said Dave Peterson, senior pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. “Rich Stearns [president of World Vision] observes that a segment within the Christian culture seems to say, “˜We”re good people doing good things, and

October 8, 2008

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

Church Health and Attendance Numbers”“How Do They Relate?

By Mark A. Taylor Is growing attendance a reliable indicator of church health? American Christians generally answer yes. Perhaps this is because we live with the effects of corporate pressure for quarter-by-quarter growth in sales and profits. For several decades now, the American mind-set has equated “bigger” with “better.” But not everyone accepts that conclusion any longer. Speaking at the Energizing Smaller Churches Network conference in Lincoln, Illinois, last month, Paul Williams listed 10 signs of a healthy smaller church. His first point: “Measure by relational growth as well as by numbers growth.” Many of the smaller church”s problems can

April 13, 2008

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Growth

The Best Indicator of Church Growth

By Kent Fillinger Typically when we measure success in the church, we count nickels and noses””how much money is given and what is the total attendance””but the best indicator of church growth and health is the baptism ratio. Baptisms are the best indicator of health because baptisms measure whether churches are reaching the lost versus just moving believers around.1 A U.S. Congregational Life Survey found that just 7 percent of new attendees are formally unchurched.2 MEGACHURCH BAPTISMS The total number of baptisms for all 113 churches in 2007 was 19,107 (down 1,234 from 2006, a 6 percent decline). A more

July 15, 2007

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Pastoral Transitions & Succession

TRANSITIONS: Facing the Facts of Transition

By Darrel Rowland If there”s one organization that should realize this life doesn”t last forever, it ought to be the church, says Russell Crabtree. But you wouldn”t know it from churches” lack of planning, especially for leadership transitions. “We live in absolute denial of the fact that the tenure of our leaders is going to come to an end,” said Crabtree, co-author of The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken About Pastoral Transitions. “We really don”t have the structures that encourage this kind of thinking. We have a mind-set about the clergy that they are like parental figures. Well,

July 3, 2005

Eddie Lowen

Church & Ministry Church Growth

Megachurches and Their Leaders – Big and Bad?

Eddie Lowen addresses common criticisms of megachurches, pointing to the New Testament church’s large beginnings and offering observations about what healthy large churches can look like in practice.

May 29, 2005

Jon Weece

Leadership Development Church Leadership

Simple Gifts, Teachable Moments

A popped balloon becomes a lesson in contentment, and a pastor’s journal becomes a window into harder questions: how Christians respond, why church health matters more than formulas, and how leaders can resist the bitter pull of cynicism.