Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 111

Seven Steps towards a Greater Gospel Focus in Your Church

By Sam Rainer

Most of the unchurched are not anti-church. Few are highly antagonistic to the gospel. In fact, only about 5% of unchurched Americans are highly antagonistic to the gospel. Euangelion is the Greek word for good news, or gospel. Have believers today lost the “good” in good news? Negativity undoubtedly sells. Negative news reports get more eyeballs, as do negative posts on social media and blogs.

Eighty percent of churchgoers believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, yet 61% of them had not told another person about Christ in the last six months. The vast majority of Christians believe they should share their faith, but few actually do. Christians should be eternal optimists. The good news should compel us outward with love. If you’re leading a church, what can you do about the fact that most believers don’t share their faith?

Step 1: Admit the problem. In my own denomination, baptism follows conversion, and 25% of churches baptize no one in a given year. Additionally, more than half of churches in my denomination baptize less than one person every two months. Your church may be an anomaly, but most are struggling to reach people for Christ. And church leaders must do more than recognize the statistical reality. Church leaders must admit they are part of the problem as well.

Step 2: Lead by example. Evangelistic churches have evangelistic leaders. Though not an impossibility, I’ve yet to hear of an outwardly-focused church with inwardly-focused leaders. You cannot expect your church members to share their faith if you’re not leading the charge. Make it a goal to share your faith with someone every week. The median church size is 75 people. That means in most churches, if the leaders simply fulfill their responsibility of sharing the gospel, the church will grow.

Step 3: Stay positive. The gospel is good news. If you rant the gospel, it’s not the gospel. It’s just religious bluster, which does no good. Your tone is important, not as important as content, but close. The prosperity gospel warps the good news, but the poverty gospel sucks the life out of it. The gospel doesn’t bring your earthly riches. Neither does the gospel require extreme asceticism. But all Christians should be positive people. Without sacrificing sincerity and authenticity (life can be hard), the best way to share your faith is to focus on the good of the good news.

Step 4: Preach it. The lead pastor must regularly preach and teach about the importance of evangelism. The pulpit and platform are the means of communicating with an entire church. What gets communicated to the entire church is perceived as most important. Use the main stage to deliver the most central message: the gospel is meant to be shared.

Step 5: Train it. Preaching about the importance of sharing the gospel is one way to convey the gravity of being outwardly focused. But preaching is not enough. Each small group setting is an excellent place to do annual training on evangelism. These smaller settings enable people to ask questions and interact with teachers.

Step 6: Mentor it. Every pastor and church leader should have at least one mentee. One of the most critical aspects of mentoring someone in the church is demonstrating to him or her how to share the gospel. If your spiritual mentoring does not include evangelism, then you’re missing a big opportunity.

Step 7: Celebrate it. You become what you celebrate. If your church celebrates evangelism, then people will likely become more evangelistic. You should elevate the gospel over other aspects of church life. Tell the story of life change in people. A church that celebrates the new birth in Christ is more likely to think outwardly than a church that doesn’t celebrate it.

Most churches need a cultural change in order to become more evangelistic. In many churches, years have passed without much of an outward focus, and evangelistic atrophy has set in. The culture of many churches has slowly become one of an inward focus. These seven steps are more technical in nature.

Realistically, one evangelism training session won’t do much for a church that hasn’t thought outwardly in years. However, repeating these seven steps consistently will begin the process, gradually shifting the culture of the church.

After a couple of years, or perhaps even a few months, you might just find many people in your church getting excited about sharing the gospel again.

Seven Major Ways Pastors Discern It’s Time to Leave Their Church – Rainer on Leadership #566

Podcast Episode #566

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One of the most frequently asked questions we get asked relates to when it’s time to take a pastorate or leave one. Today we cover seven ways to sense it’s time to leave.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

One indicator that it’s time to move to a new pastorate is when you have a stronger and clearer vision for the new church than your current one.
There’s always the risk of leaving a pastorate for greener grass when you really shouldn’t.
Your family is your first line of ministry.
You will always have some critics as a pastor. But when the opposition is insurmountable, it may be better for everyone to find another place of ministry.

The seven ways we discuss are:

A sense of God’s calling
A vision transfer to another ministry
Family issues
Insurmountable opposition at the current church
A sense of completed ministry at the current church
A calling away from local church ministry to another Christian ministry
A calling into the secular marketplace

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Church Answers


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.

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.

Because of the centrality of preaching in most churches, it is always fascinating to learn what developments are taking place in the preaching ministry. I recently conducted another social media survey on sermon length. This time, however, I asked an additional question. The two questions were as follows: What is your typical sermon length? Has it changed over your ministry?

We received nearly 1,000 responses. With that volume of great feedback, we were able to see five clear trends:

Pastors are, for the most part, changing sermon length over the course of their ministry (Trending Up ). Over eight of ten pastors indicated they had made significant changes to their sermon length in their ministries. There were a number of reasons for the changes, but the most common was adapting to listening patterns of the congregation.

Sermon length is down slightly over the past four years (Trending Down ). The median length of the sermon of those surveyed was 27 minutes, down from 29 minutes four years ago.

Though a number of respondents indicated changes to sermon length were longer than previous years, by a 3:2 margin more pastors were moving to shorter sermons (Trending Down ). Since this point is similar to number two above, you would expect more pastors moving to shorter sermons than to longer sermons.

Many of the pastors who were resistant to shortening the length of their sermons were compelled to do so when they went to multiple services, multiple sites, and/or multiple venues (Trending Down ). This pastor said it well: “I preached around 50 minutes until we added a second service. I had to trim the length by 10 minutes just for logistical reasons. It about killed me!”

The number of pastors whose sermon length is an outlier (fewer than 15 minutes or greater than 50 minutes) is small but stable (Trending Stable ). Fewer than five percent of the pastors who responded preach sermons whose length is an outlier because of its brevity or longer length. The number of outliers has not changed significantly, but the advocates of either extreme tend to be clear and eager to verbalize the benefits of their sermon lengths.

Thank you, first, to the Church Answers’ community for starting this discussion. And thank you to the hundreds of you who responded.

What is your typical sermon length? Has it changed over the course of your ministry?

Pray for Anthem Church

Location: Beaverton, Oregon

Pastor: Paul Allen Riggs

Weekly Worship: 3:30 PM, Pacific

Fast Facts: Anthem Church is a 4-year-old church plant in the Portland metro area. They have been uniquely blessed with being filled with new and non-followers of Jesus. However, one struggle they’ve faced is having mature followers of Jesus come and be a part of what God is doing. Please pray for continued spiritual growth at Anthem Church. Also pray for their ongoing collaboration with another church in the area to see greater work for the Kingdom together.

Website: AnthemTribe.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 24, 2019

From Around the Web:

7 Ways To Get Past the Funk of Talking About Money at Church — Carey Nieuwhof

When you talk about money, it’s like you’re setting yourself up to be shot at. You almost always take bullets when you talk about money, even when you speak about it as earnestly, biblically and honestly as you know how. As a result, many pastors avoid the subject and only talk about it if there’s a financial crisis looming for the church. That’s the biggest mistake you can make. Only talking about money when you need money is the best way to set everyone up to lose.

Millennial Christians, Smaller in Number, but Just as Faithful as Older Generations — Facts & Trends

There are fewer millennial Christians than in previous generations, but those young adults who do follow Christ do so just as faithfully as older believers, according to a Barna study. Around 8 in 10 Boomers (80%) and elders (83%) self-identify as Christians. That falls to 73% of Generation X and 64% of millennials.

The Church-Budgeting Book You Didn’t Know You Need — Chris Brauns

The business of the church—that is, the responsible stewardship of resources entrusted to a local congregation—is very much a responsibility of God’s people. Hence, local churches must make it a goal to align financial practices with biblical priorities, such that when Christ returns people are thankful for every dollar they entrusted to that congregation.

7 Questions to Ask about the Length of a Worship Service — Chuck Lawless

When I’ve taught classes on pastoral ministry, it’s not uncommon for a student to ask at some point, “How long should a worship service be?” My answer is perhaps not that helpful—“I don’t know”—but I’d rather offer evaluative questions than give a standard response. Here are some of the questions I’d consider:

This Week at ThomRainer.com:





















Five Healthy Ways to Run Your Church Like a Business

Churches should not emulate businesses completely. But to say categorically a church should not run like a business at all can be both unwise and a poor practice of biblical stewardship…READ MORE

Seven Massive Changes Where Churches Must Respond

We need to understand these changes and how they are affecting our churches. Because only then will we truly be able to respond and grow healthy churches…together…READ MORE

Six Reasons Pastors Must Become Change Leaders

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode564.mp3








Six Reasons Longevity Is Critical for Change Leadership

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Rainer on Leadership

http://media.blubrry.com/thomrainer/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Rainer-on-Leadership/Episode565.mp3








Seven Reasons a Guiding Coalition Is Vital in Church Revitalization

by Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe | Revitalize & Replant

http://media.blubrry.com/revitalizereplant/s3.amazonaws.com/rainerpodcast/Revitalize-and-Replant/RR-Episode107.mp3

Six Reasons Longevity Is Critical for Change Leadership – Rainer on Leadership #565

Podcast Episode #565

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Change in a church does not happen overnight. Leading a group of people to change takes time. Today we look at six reasons why longevity is so critical to change.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

It often takes around five years to become the pastor in the hearts of church members.
Those who you think are your biggest supporters early in a pastorate too often turn into some of your biggest critics later on.
The longer you pastor a church, the more people will become aligned with the vision you cast for the church.
What sometimes seems like an impossible large change is often just a series of doable small changes.

The six reasons we discuss are:

Trust is built over time.
You know your congregation better.
You know your community better.
Many of the roadblocks have left.
The 3 to 5 year vision is critical for change.
You have built a guiding coalition.

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Church Answers
Revitalize2020.com
Six Reasons Pastors Must Become Change Leaders – Rainer on Leadership #564
Seven Reasons a Guiding Coalition Is Vital in Church Revitalization – Revitalize & Replant #107


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.

Seven Reasons a Guiding Coalition Is Vital in Church Revitalization – Revitalize & Replant #107

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Many times when we talk about church revitalization, we talk about change. And when you change things, you will need a guiding coalition to help implement and support the change.

Episode Highlights:

Influence grows exponentially when you enlist supporters to help carry out a vision.
It’s imperative for pastors to do a lot of listening when they are leading a church toward change.
The history of a church can often help define the present and project the future.
Roadblocks are most easily and most often overcome through relationships.

The seven reasons we discuss are:

The coalition has webs of relationships.

The coalition has built trust the pastor may not have.

The coalition is critical to understand the history of the church.

The coalition can handle roadblocks.

The coalition can be a source of encouragement.

The coalition should be a source of accountability.

The coalition can provide the wisdom of crowds.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Who Moved My Pulpit?
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 Massive Changes Where Churches Must Respond

Last week in my webinar about retirement paths for pastors and church staff, I shared about the current collision of two major forces in the church: the significant increase in those headed toward retirement, and massive changes we are seeing in local churches.

Had we talked about these massive changes 20-30 years ago, most people wouldn’t have given them much thought because the concepts were so foreign to how we “did church” a generation or two ago.

Today, these are not just understandable concepts. They are the norm. These seven massive changes are dramatically shaping our churches today.

The Death of Cultural Christianity. When I pastored, there were several members who were not Christians yet were still members of the church. These unregenerate church members used their church affiliation for social status. Now, cultural Christianity is no longer the norm. Churches have seen the exit of 25% or more of their attendees simply because “going to church” is no longer seen as a requirement for social validation.

The Multi Movement. Multi site. Multi venue. Multi service. There are now multiple multis. We have more service times, styles, and locations than ever before. Some of these additions have produced good results. Churches are more relevant to their communities, and we have experienced a more diverse expression of musical worship as well. But in some regards, the multi movement has produced what some refer to as an “ecclesiological buffet” for church goers to graze on.

The Shift in Work Habits. If you were to survey your congregation on whether or not they are required to work regularly on Sundays, you’d probably be surprised at how many are forced to miss corporate worship due to work requirements. Because of this, more churches are exploring alternative worship days and times to reach those unable to make it on Sundays due to work. And while Saturday night services have been around for a few years, Tuesday night services are becoming more common among many churches.

The Decline of Denominations. Denomination offices, especially Protestant ones, traditionally had a large influence in pastor and interim pastor placement. But as denominational funding and participation has declined, so has denominational influence. Now, churches have a much greater say in picking their leader than they have traditionally had in the past.

The Move to Different Staffing Models. The traditional staffing model is Churches are looking to more bi-vocational and part-time staff to cover what they may have hired full-time ministers for in the past. This has led to new types of staff positions and a greater demand for qualified and trained staff.

The Huge Revitalization and Replanting Movement. Church planting dominated much of the leadership conversation over the past decade—often to the detriment or neglect of traditional churches. Now, leaders are course correcting and starting to resource established churches in need of replanting and revitalization. This course correction is one of the main reasons we started a podcast on replanting and revitalization two years ago and why we founded Revitalize Network last fall.

The Closure of 8,000 to 10,000 Churches a Year. This is the unfortunate result of a lack of emphasis on established churches over the past few decades. Far too many churches have closed and far too much ground has been given up in our communities. It’s time once again for gospel advance in communities where we’ve seen these churches close.

These seven massive shifts continue to impact churches in the United States and beyond. And I truly believe God has placed us here for such a time as this.

The church landscape will continue to change and leaders must change with it. That’s why we’ve been talking so much this week and last about Interim Pastor University. This training prepares pastors and church staff to work with and help churches to become healthier while they look for new leadership. Enrollment is still open for those who might be interested. You can find out more here.

But regardless of your role in God’s Kingdom, we need to understand these changes and how they are affecting our churches. Because only then will we truly be able to respond and grow healthy churches…together.

Six Reasons Pastors Must Become Change Leaders – Rainer on Leadership #564

Podcast Episode #564

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Determining the correct pace of change is often the most important aspect of leading change—because change is needed in nearly every church situation. Today, we discuss why change is essential and how to do it well.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Many pastors are hesitant to make change because they know the wrong pace of change could cost them their job.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
The pain that have with the change we introduce in this life pales in comparison to the eternity we can impact in the next life.
The world is changing. If we don’t lead change, we will get left behind.

The six reasons we discuss are:

Because biblical leaders were change leaders
Because we must lead from an eternal perspective
Because the world is changing so fast
Because it is better to be lead change rather than be led by change
Because the Great Commission is about change
Because leaders will have regrets

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast

Church Answers
Eating the Elephant
Who Moved My Pulpit?


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.

Five Healthy Ways to Run Your Church Like a Business

One of the most common responses we receive at ThomRainer.com is something like this statement: “You can’t run your church like a business.”

I get it. Our goal is to glorify God. Our goal is to make disciples. Our goal is to be faithful to God’s Word.

Our goal is not to make profits. Our goal is not to adopt secular principles in place of biblical principles.

So, when someone insists we not run the church like a business, I understand his or her heart and intent.

But there are indeed some business principles that correlate with church practices and biblical truth. To say we don’t run our church like a business carte blanche may be a signal that we are ignoring sound and, at least indirectly, biblical counsel. Here are five examples:

Healthy businesses are determined to spend wisely. So should churches. Sound business practices require a company to have systems in place to evaluate expenditures constantly. Frankly, I’ve seen many businesses that understand better why they spend funds than churches do. Too many churches just do things the way they’ve always done it.

Healthy businesses have clear financial accountability. So should churches. Good business practices include clear and demonstrable accountability to owners and/or stockholders, as well as the Internal Revenue Service. Churches would do well to emulate some of these practices.

Healthy businesses make tough personnel decisions. So should churches. Jim Collins, in his classic book Good to Great, uses the bus metaphor to describe personnel decisions of healthy businesses. He says they have to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats on the bus. Too many churches allow for poor and postponed decisions about personnel. To use another metaphor, they “kick the can,” hoping things will get better. They usually get worse.

Healthy businesses plan for the future. So should churches. Many churches follow the same calendar and plans they have been using for years. The leaders and members often act like it’s 2005. Or 1998. Or 1975. Healthy businesses plan for the future and allocate their resources accordingly. While neither businesses nor churches have a perfect knowledge of the future, it only makes good stewardship sense to plan with the knowledge we have.

Healthy businesses are constantly trying to understand their audiences. So should churches. A business will not stay in business unless it understands clearly its market and customers. While churches don’t have customers and markets as businesses do, they are commanded to go and make disciples in the community and in the world. It is hard to know where to go, when to go, and how to go unless we have at least a basic missional knowledge of our community.

For certain, there are both healthy and unhealthy businesses. For certain, there are both healthy and unhealthy churches. For certain, churches should not emulate businesses completely. But to say categorically a church should not run like a business at all can be both unwise and a poor practice of biblical stewardship.