Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 110

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: September 7, 2019

From Around the Web:

7 Questions to Answer Before Your Next Sermon — Jason Allen

Over the years, I’ve developed a mental checklist that I typically ask of every sermon before I preach it. Like traveling, this checklist is important because in the rush of getting out the door, I can overlook an essential element to the preaching process if I don’t intentionally pause and reflect upon the task at hand. These seven questions help me do just that.

3 Ways to Deal With Anger in Ministry — Facts & Trends

The way you choose to deal with the people and situations that make you mad will have a tremendous impact on you and others. Your control over difficult circumstances is limited. Your control over how you respond to difficult circumstances is not.

12 Signs that Leaders Have Become Kings of Their Own Kingdoms — Chuck Lawless

Too often, a leader who was once a servant of others wrongly transitions into being the king of his own kingdom. Here are some signs that a leader has become the “king”:

7 Big Money Mistakes Newlywed Couples Make — Art Rainer

Believe it or not, marriage and money don’t always seem to mix well. Couples that have been married for a few years sometimes find themselves arguing heatedly over finances. For some, the arguments seemingly never stop, and both parties eventually find themselves asking, “How did we get here?”

This Week at ThomRainer.com:





















How Do You Explain Why Members Left the Church to Members Who Stay?

Many exits by church members are the result of self-centered motives. The church members are asking the unspoken question, “What have you done for me lately?”…READ MORE

Seven Things We Can Learn from Attractional Churches

The debate between being an attractional or missional church continues. I’m not a fan of a church that is ONLY attractional, but I do think we can learn some things from the attractional approach…READ MORE

Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about Their Children

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode568.mp3








Leading Millennials in Your Church

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode569.mp3








Six Principles of Patience in Church Revitalization

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Revitalize & Replant

http://media.blubrry.com/revitalizereplant/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Revitalize-and-Replant/RR-Episode109.mp3

Leading Millennials in Your Church – Rainer on Leadership #569

Podcast Episode #569

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Troy Pollock from Pushpay joins us today to discuss church technology and how you can better reach Millennials in your church.

About Troy Pollock:

Troy is part of the executive leadership team at Pushpay and serves as Chief Ambassador. As the first U.S. employee, he has helped shape the company to be one of the fastest growing SaaS companies today. Most notably, Troy pioneered the Customer Success Department from humble beginnings to an award winning team that partners with churches and non-profits around the globe. After studying communication and sociology at San Diego State University and theology at Oral Roberts University, Troy helped pioneer a healthy church in Southern California, where he served as an Executive Pastor for 6 years. He and his wife April live in Redmond, WA.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

“The church should be leading the charge in the way of technology, but many are far behind.”
“Churches who are remaining relevant see technology as incumbent to their continued growth—not as an add-on.”
“Millennials want something with a sense of belonging.”
“Millennials want to be part of something that impacts the world and is larger than themselves.”

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Pushpay


Episode Sponsors

The mission at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The school offers more than 40 different degree programs, including the new Master of Arts in Church Revitalization in partnership with Church Answers and the Revitalization Network. This 37-hour degree is designed to help students move established churches from flatlining to flourishing.

Learn about this program and more by visiting sebts.edu. Where are you going? Southeastern will help you get there.

Vanderbloemen has 12 Vanderbloemen Differences that allow them to serve their clients better than anyone else. One of those is Theology Matters. Vanderbloemen’s staff has more seminary and theological experience than any other search firm with 250+ collective years of church leadership experience.

To learn more about all 12 of Vanderbloemen’s Differences, visit VanderDifference.com.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Becoming a Welcoming Church.

Six Principles of Patience in Church Revitalization – Revitalize & Replant #109

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Patience is required in church revitalization because when you’re dealing with long-term members, change doesn’t happen overnight and neither does growth. Today, we discuss six principles of patience needed in revitalization.

Episode Highlights:

Successful revitalizations often require pastors to preach, pray, love, and stay.
Some of the victories in church revitalization are incremental and need to be celebrated.
Long term church staff members sometimes struggle with an entitlement mentality.
If you don’t have support of leadership, moving out a long-time staff member can be difficult and costly.

The six principles we discuss are:

Trust of pastors typically takes around five years.
Moving from defeatism to victories is incremental.
Leadership must wait on some of the healthy members to move forward.
Leadership must wait on some of the less healthy members to move out.
It can take a few years to deal with toxic members.
It takes years to learn true celebration.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Revitalizer Profile
ChurchAnswers.com
Find more resources at the Revitalize & Replant page at ThomRainer.com


Revitalize & Replant is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and ChurchReplanters.com. More than 10% of churches in North America are at risk of closing and the North American Mission Board is committed to reversing this trend by decreasing the death rate of existing churches while simultaneously increasing the birth rate of new churches. To learn more about what it means to become a replanting pastor or to explore resources for replanting and revitalization in your own church, visit ChurchReplanters.com.
Submit Your Question:

Do you have a question about church revitalization or replanting for us to use on the podcast? Visit the podcast page to submit your question. If we use it on the show, you’ll get a copy of Autopsy of a Deceased Church and Reclaiming Glory.

Seven Things We Can Learn from Attractional Churches

By Chuck Lawless

The debate between being an attractional or missional church continues. I’m not a fan of a church that is ONLY attractional, but I do think we can learn some things from the attractional approach:

Have an intentional strategy to reach people. Too many churches are neither attractional nor missional because they have little commitment to reaching the unchurched anyway. An attractional approach is at least an intentional start.

Think about the unchurched. You might argue that the attractional approach gives too much attention to them, but it does focus on non-believing people that the Lord loves. It pushes us to be outwardly focused.

Promote excellence. The consumerism of the attractional approach may go too far, but it nevertheless requires us to strive for excellence. Far too many congregations act as if a shoddy, ill-prepared worship service is pleasing to the Lord.

Keep moving people in the direction of evangelism. Few believers will ever share the gospel verbally, but perhaps inviting others to church is at least a move in that direction. An attractional model requires us to consider the spiritual state of others – a first step toward evangelism.

Demand strong communication. Attractional approaches don’t work if the delivery of the message is poorly done (and, of course, I’m assuming here that the message is clearly the gospel).

Apply the gospel. Hearers need to understand how to apply the gospel to their lives during the rest of the week, and strong preaching takes them there through application. Show people where the gospel intersects their lives.

Maximize the opportunity. We may get only one opportunity to proclaim the gospel to the unchurched person who unexpectedly attends our church. Tell it clearly. Tell it well. Passionately call people to Jesus.

Now, I’m not suggesting that missional churches don’t exhibit these characteristics. Many, in fact, do. What I’m encouraging is an approach that is both attractional and missional: we move outside the church to live among the lost, take the light to them, share life with them, and also invite them to corporate worship that is biblically sound and culturally aware.

We can learn from each other.

Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about Their Children – Rainer on Leadership #568

Podcast Episode #568

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Children of pastors often feel like they live in glass house. Today, we take a look at an older post from ThomRainer.com on their thoughts about being seen as a pastor’s kid.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Pastors’ children will get a lot of negative feedback. They need to be encouraged greatly.
We need to keep in mind that pastors’ kids are just that—kids.
Don’t put pastors’ kids in a separate category from other kids in the church.
Consultants don’t always tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to know.

The seven things we discuss are:

“Don’t expect more from the pastor’s kids than any other kids.”
“Please offer encouragement to my children.”
“Realize they are kids.”
“Please don’t call them PKs.”
“Please pray for my children.”
“Our kids see and hear more than you realize.”
“Don’t make me choose between my kids and the church.”

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Church Answers
Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about Their Children
Pastors’ Kids – Rainer on Leadership #040


Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen has been serving churches for nine years, but did you know that Vanderbloemen also serves Christian schools, nonprofits, and Christian businesses? So if you’re listening, and you know a Christian school, nonprofit, or values-based business that is hiring, contact our friends at Vanderbloemen for your staffing needs.

For more information, visit Vanderbloemen.com.

The mission at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The school offers more than 40 different degree programs, including the new Master of Arts in Church Revitalization in partnership with Church Answers and the Revitalization Network. This 37-hour degree is designed to help students move established churches from flatlining to flourishing.

Learn about this program and more by visiting sebts.edu. Where are you going? Southeastern will help you get there.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Scrappy Church.

How Do You Explain Why Members Left the Church to Members Who Stay?

Pastors are usually hurt when a member decides to leave the church. Sometimes the pain is deep. It feels personal.

In addition to dealing with their own pain, pastors also have to offer explanations about these departures to members who ask about them. The pastors cannot just ignore the questions and walk away.

I was recently in a church where a church member informed me that he and his family would be leaving the church. It was none of my business, so I simply acknowledged his comment. But he insisted on telling me why he was leaving.

Every comment he made was about his needs, his preferences, how he wanted to do church. The worship style did not meet his needs. He was not getting fed. He wanted church to be more organic, whatever that means. He had three people he desired to please: me, myself, and I. He never made one comment about his own commitments to minister, to give, to serve, and to be fed.

Before the conversation was over, he proudly told me he and his family would leave quietly and peaceably. There would be no problems after they left.

Yeah. Right.

I spoke with the pastor a few weeks later. Multiple church members came to him to ask him why Bill (not his real name) and his family left. You can’t blame the inquiring church members. The family had been active in church, and they just disappeared. Bill left a mess for the pastor.

So, how do pastors and other church members respond to these difficult questions? I’ve seen the best responses have four key components, so here is the counsel I offer pastors.

Be as transparent as possible. The inquiring church member can sense if you are withholding information. Perhaps, for good reasons, you can’t say everything. But offer as much information as possible. If there are perceived gaps in your explanation, the inquiring church member may fill those gaps with his or her imagination. That’s not good.

Admit your own feelings. While the inquiring church member should not turn into your therapist, there is something healthy about pastors sharing their own pains. It would not make sense if the pastors were impervious to the pain such departures cause. It would raise more questions.

Explain that such departures are common in most every church. Some inquiring church members should know that the circulation of the saints takes place in almost every church. We live in a consumer society, and many people simply jump from church to church. While this explanation does not minimize the pain, it does let the inquirer know your church does not have unique problems.

Provide hope. If possible, conclude the conversation with hope. Point the inquiring member to the ways God is working in your church. While you acknowledge the pain and frustration of the departure, you also acknowledge the positive future God has for the church.

Some departures of members are done so with good reasons. There may be significant doctrinal issues. The member may have moved to a new neighborhood and wants to be able to invite his or her neighbors to a closer church. Perhaps the member is in the sad situation where his or her family broke up due to divorce, and both families in the divorce find it extremely difficult to be in the same church.

But, frankly, many church member exits are the result of self-centered motives. The church member is asking the unspoken question, “What have you done for me lately?”

Such situations are both sad and painful for pastors. But pastors should expect remaining members will have questions. Most of those inquiries are made out of concern and love for the church. Respond with transparency, facts, and hope. The painful situation will soon pass.

Until it happens again.

Pray for Reynolda Church

Location: King, North Carolina

Pastor: Alan Wright

Weekly Worship: 10am, Eastern

Fast Facts: Reynolda Church is more than 100 years old and is located in the triad region of North Carolina. It is a growing congregation meeting in different locations—alive in the Spirit, contemporary in worship, exciting for kids, and brimming with the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus. They have a dream of forever changing their region by sharing the healing presence of Jesus that they have so richly experienced. Next Sunday, September 8, Reynolda Church will launch its fourth campus in King, NC, a rural town of nearly 10,000. It will host its first services at the Stokes Family YMCA under the campus leadership of Chuck Estes. Pray that many people who are currently unconnected to Jesus’ work in the local church will come, hear the Gospel, and experience new birth.

Website: ReynoldaChurch.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: August 31, 2019

From Around the Web:

The Most Critical Step in Introducing Change — Ron Edmondson

That’s the most critical step. The way you begin will impact everything else. It’s like a first impression – very hard to come back from if done wrong. If you want the change to be effective, you’ve got to invest time in introducing it well – especially to those that will be most impacted by the change.

The Power of Prayer in Church Revitalization — Facts & Trends

In Colossians 1, Paul makes clear that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. As the head, He alone has the power to bring back to life a church that’s on the brink of death. The good news is, of course, that He loves to bring things that were once dead, back to life.

The Wittenberg Door of American Evangelical Missions — Jason G. Duesing

We can see a dotted line from 1806 to the present, for the Haystack Prayer event is, in many ways, the Wittenberg Door of American evangelicalism’s awakening to the need and universal call for all believers to support, organize, and send many for global gospel proclamation.

5 Things Churches Can Learn from Guerrilla Marketing — Kevin Hall

We should all agree that we aren’t in a numbers game for the sake of numbers. However, numbers do represent people – and biblical church growth is about reaching out to people, seeing them come to know Christ, and then discipling them into mature Christ-followers. Numerical growth is the natural result of these efforts. Here are a few marketing “take-aways” every church, whether established or a new church plant, should consider:

This Week at ThomRainer.com:





















Five Trending Developments on Sermon Length

One thing is for certain regarding the proclamation of God’s Word: preaching is still primary for both pastors and church members…READ MORE

Seven Steps towards a Greater Gospel Focus in Your Church

Repeating these seven steps consistently will begin the process of gradually shifting the culture of the church toward a greater gospel focus…READ MORE

Seven Major Ways Pastors Discern It’s Time to Leave Their Church

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode566.mp3








Seven Things We Should Celebrate Regularly in Our Churches

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode567.mp3








Five of the Most Common Metrics to Watch in Revitalization or Replant

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Revitalize & Replant

http://media.blubrry.com/revitalizereplant/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Revitalize-and-Replant/RR-Episode108.mp3

Seven Things We Should Celebrate Regularly in Our Churches – Rainer on Leadership #567

Podcast Episode #567

SUBSCRIBE:
iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play • iHeart Radio • Spotify

What you celebrate, you become. And today we discuss ways churches can celebrate how God is working in them and through them.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

We need to celebrate salvations in our churches because it will engender more evangelism by our members.
Churches should celebrate the gospel impact being made in their communities.
Other churches are not your competitors. They are cooperating in your church’s mission to reach its community.
When we celebrate answered prayers, we are celebrating the work of God.

The six reasons we discuss are:

Salvation
Ministry volunteers
Community impact
Other churches
Prayers answered
Involvement in groups
Bible reading

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Church Answers
Six Ways a Church Failed the Guest Friendliness Test – Rainer on Leadership #558
Rob Paul Revitalization Story
Baptism Sunday Resources


Episode Sponsors

The mission at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The school offers more than 40 different degree programs, including the new Master of Arts in Church Revitalization in partnership with Church Answers and the Revitalization Network. This 37-hour degree is designed to help students move established churches from flatlining to flourishing.

Learn about this program and more by visiting sebts.edu. Where are you going? Southeastern will help you get there.

Vanderbloemen has 12 Vanderbloemen Differences that allow them to serve their clients better than anyone else. One of those is Theology Matters. Vanderbloemen’s staff has more seminary and theological experience than any other search firm with 250+ collective years of church leadership experience.

To learn more about all 12 of Vanderbloemen’s Differences, visit VanderDifference.com.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Becoming a Welcoming Church.

Five of the Most Common Metrics to Watch in Revitalization or Replant – Revitalize & Replant #108

SUBSCRIBE TODAY:
iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play • Spotify

In a revitalization or replant, there are more important and more specific metrics to measure and watch than in growing churches or church plants. Today, we look at five.

Episode Highlights:

Three-year trend lines are important to watch in revitalization situations because of the time it takes for things to turn around.
If only a handful of people give a large share of a church’s budget, it can be problematic if one of them leaves the church.
Churches should follow up with first-time guests in a systematic and immediate way.
Church budgets—like the people and leadership—need to be outwardly focused.

The five metrics we discuss are:

Consecutive years of worship attendance decline.
The percentage of members giving 80% of the budget.
Conversions relative to attendance.
Average first and second-time guests per week.
Percentage of budget inwardly focused.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Church Guests Video Module
Envelope3.com
RevitalizeBundle.com
ChurchAnswers.com
ChurchReplanters.com
Replanter Assessment
Find more resources at the Revitalize & Replant page at ThomRainer.com


Revitalize & Replant is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and ChurchReplanters.com. More than 10% of churches in North America are at risk of closing and the North American Mission Board is committed to reversing this trend by decreasing the death rate of existing churches while simultaneously increasing the birth rate of new churches. To learn more about what it means to become a replanting pastor or to explore resources for replanting and revitalization in your own church, visit ChurchReplanters.com.
Submit Your Question:

Do you have a question about church revitalization or replanting for us to use on the podcast? Visit the podcast page to submit your question. If we use it on the show, you’ll get a copy of Autopsy of a Deceased Church and Reclaiming Glory.