Josh Hunt's Blog, page 265

Top three factors of church revitalization

Respondents were asked to identify the top three factors that led to their church being revitalized. Overall, the top three responses were “prayer,” “evangelism/outreach,” and “preaching.” These words were identified in 44.7 percent, 37.2 percent, and 25 percent of the responses, respectively. At first, these responses can seem to be too simplistic. It is easy […]

Prerequisites for revitalization, part 2

A God-Sized Vision Take time to study the Scripture concerning the makeup of the church. Many excellent books have been written that develop a clear ecclesiology and practice for the church. Look beyond these books and ask, “What would God want for my church?” What do you believe God wants to see happen and what […]

The prerequisite to revitalization

Before a pastor initializes a program for revitalization, some simple steps need to be followed. I recognize that these steps may seem to be rather unsophisticated and even condescending. One would think that every Christian knows how to do a quiet time, but the fact is many of us do not. This detail happens to […]

What happens when revitalization comes?

In their book Firefall: How God Has Shaped History through Revivals, Malcolm McDow and Alvin L. Reid chronicle the results of this Second Great Awakening from 1787 to 1843: Great revival always leads to significant evangelism and church growth. From 1800 to 1830 Presbyterians grew fourfold, from about 40,000 to 173,329. Baptists grew from 872 […]

A surprising discovery among comeback churches

While it was no surprise that prayer was the number one area that changed during the comeback, we found it fascinating that children’s ministry and youth ministry were in the top five. We didn’t necessarily expect to find them rated that high, but once the comebacks started taking place, comeback churches saw the need to […]

The state of the church :-(

Here are some depressing statistics: 1,400 pastors in America leave the ministry monthly Less than 20% of churches recognized or appreciated their pastor in some way annually Only 15% of churches in the United States are growing and just 2.2% of those are growing by conversion growth 10,000 churches in America disappeared in a five-year […]

Servant Evangelism–one story

Chuck was an alcoholic for years. Like many veterans of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), he had an experience with his “Higher Power” and thankfully stopped drinking. “But there is a difference,” he says, “between stopping the negative patterns and filling yourself with something positive. I was no longer drinking, but I was empty inside.” An outreach […]

8 Signs of Church Health

Take note of these identifying characteristics of church health: An Authoritative View of Scripture. Simon Peter’s sermon was filled with Old Testament quotes. Once the church was established, the Scripture declares, “So those who accepted his message were baptized . . . and they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:41–42). The New Testament obviously had […]

Coffee evangelism

In a heartfelt note to me, Al described himself as a “former highly driven, money-motivated entrepreneur.” He usually worked sixty hours a week at his consulting business. Though he was raised attending church, he says he “evaporated” shortly after his first communion service as a teenager. And while he had possessed a childhood faith, he […]

Willowcreek’s vision for small groups

Here is our vision for the small group effort at Willow Creek: To become a church where nobody stands alone. We want our people to know that we want to become something—a place where there is always a seat at the table of community. We are the body of Christ, the family of God, a […]