Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 191

Six Items to Include in Your Guest Welcome Packet

In podcast episode 300, we briefly touched on guest welcome packets. Following the interest in that episode and after last week’s post on guests’ gifts, it seemed only prudent to expand on the topic.

Guest welcome packets differ from a guest letter. And while they can be mailed, it’s sometimes more effective to hand these out at an information desk while the guest is still on campus. Some churches opt to have packets available at kids check-in or in the student ministry area as well. This makes it easy to include age-appropriate information in the packet because the parents are dropping off a child in that age range.

So whether you mail your guest packet or give it out on Sunday, here are six items to be sure to include:

General information about the church and next steps. The information should be a brief overview. There’s no need to have a 30-page history of the church. Provide an overview of the church’s vision, its group strategy, and how to take the next step toward membership. This next step should also include information about making a personal decision for Christ.
Information about specific ministries that might be of interest. Trained guest experience volunteers can make the difference in a guest connecting to the church or not. Volunteers need to be perceptive to the needs and wants of the guest and provide the specific information that’s relevant to them. As previously stated, this can easily be pre-loaded if the packets are given out in age-specific areas, but if you hand them out at a welcome center, insert this information according to need as you give them to the guest.
A welcome gift. I covered four common guest gifts last week and several others were mentioned in the comments—including my personal favorite of chips and salsa. Whatever your gift may be, if you can provide it in the packet, that’s great. If you deliver it later to the home, that also can work in certain contexts.
Stories from members. Member stories allow you to connect to guests on a personal level. When compiling member stories for the welcome packet, just use first names of those who provide their story and highlight three main points in each story: where the member was in their life before coming to your church, how they connected to the church, and how the connection changed them.
Weekly schedule. Don’t assume the guest will look up times and events online or in the bulletin. Provide a schedule of major weekly events for them to hang on to or to stick on the fridge. Even if you think the times are easy to remember, it will take guests some time to remember dates and times when they are new to your church.
Important upcoming dates. This can be compiled for each major season of the church calendar. Right now, you should include late summer events, back to school events, and major fall events. Later in the year, add the holiday schedule to the list. Then in the spring, add your Easter and major summer events.

What else does your church include in its guest welcome packet? Do you even have a guest welcome packet?

Dispelling the 80 Percent Myth of Declining Churches

Buckle your seat belts.

Over the next several posts, I will be sharing with you the results of an incredible research project on 1,000 churches. At the risk of overstatement, I think this data may point us to some exciting and positive opportunities. Indeed, I hope to share a plan for the evangelistic renewal and growth of our churches in the weeks ahead.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Allow me to share, at the risk of boredom, the basis of this research:

Our program randomly selected 1,000 churches with available data for 2013 and 2016.
The strength of the study is its accuracy. The margin of error at the 95% percent confidence level is +/- 3.1%. If you’re not a numbers nerd, that means this data is incredibly accurate.
The possible weakness of this study is that it only includes churches of my denomination. We took this path because we have a gold mine of data. I do believe, however, this data can be a good approximation of evangelical churches, and a rough approximation of all Protestant churches in North America.

The Research Says 80 Percent Is Not Correct

Have you ever heard, “80 percent of churches are either plateaued or declining”?

I have. It’s wrong.

Here are the results of our research. We used average worship attendance as our metric rather than church membership. Unfortunately, church membership is fast becoming a meaningless metric.

56 percent of churches are declining.
9 percent of churches are plateaued.
35 percent of churches are growing.

So here is the new and correct statement of reality: 65 percent of churches are declining or plateaued. There is a huge statistical difference between 80 percent, the myth, and 65 percent, the reality.

So What?

I loathe research projects that ultimately offer only statistics and not solutions. Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing with you some incredible and eye-opening research. But, ultimately, I will offer some solutions based on what God is doing in these growing and evangelistic churches compared to the declining churches.

Here are some areas I will cover in upcoming posts:

The danger line in worship attendance that becomes a predictor for church death.
The relationship between the growth of the community and the growth of a church.
How some smaller churches are thriving in the shadow of megachurches.
What the most effective evangelistic churches are doing differently.
The relationship between small groups/Sunday school and the growth of a church.

My goal is ultimately to provide a clear path for evangelistic growth and renewal in our churches. We are learning so much from these churches and their leaders. I can’t wait to share more of our findings in future posts.

In the meantime, remember this basic fact: 65 percent of churches are plateaued or declining, not 80 percent.

And 35 percent of churches are growing.

It is my prayer that we will help you understand how your church can be in that latter group of churches.

She Reads Truth with Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams – Rainer on Leadership #340

Podcast Episode #340

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Raechel and Amanda from She Reads Truth join us to discuss how they got started, what went into the production of one of the hottest Bibles on the market, and what’s next for the She Reads Truth family.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

She Reads Truth was born from the desire to read God’s Word more.
“When we create reading plans, we want to let Scripture interpret Scripture.”
The She Reads Truth Bible is a process over two years in the making.
The She Reads Truth Bible is intentionally designed to spotlight Scripture.
I have never seen anything take off like the She Reads Truth Bible.

About Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams

Raechel Myers is always on the lookout for beauty, goodness, and truth in everyday life. Co-founder and CEO of She Reads Truth, Raechel has a bachelor’s degree in housing and environmental design, and is not afraid to paint a whole house over a long weekend. She longs to cook artisanal meals, but loves Chinese takeout. She lives south of Nashville, Tennessee, with her three favorite people.

Amanda Bible Williams likes words and books more than just about anything. She holds bachelor’s degrees in English and psychology, nearly a master’s in religion, and a deep love for a farmhouse east of Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and their three children. Chief Content Officer of She Reads Truth, Amanda spends her days happily rearranging sentences and explaining that her maiden name really is Bible.

Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. Their Fall Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor Coaching Networks are now open for registration, and our very own Dr. Rainer will be speaking at the Fall Lead Pastor Coaching Network.

So if you’re a Lead Pastor or an Executive Pastor looking for peer roundtable coaching, check it out at vanderbloemen.com/coaching. It’s limited to 16 folks, so apply today before it fills up.

Midwestern Seminary, one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America, exists to train leaders For The Church. The local church is God’s “Plan A” for the proclamation of the gospel, and there is no Plan B. And this is Midwestern’s vision and heartbeat—equipping pastors and other ministry leaders who are called to expand God’s mission in the world through the local church. At Midwestern Seminary: they train leaders ‘For The Church.’

Visit them online at MBTS.edu and start your ministry training today.

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 Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

She Reads Truth
SheReadsTruth.com
She Reads Truth App
She Reads Truth Bible

Five Terrible Reasons to Enter Vocational Ministry

I’ve seen too many people in vocational ministry fail to launch.

Perhaps “launch” is not the best term, because they may stay in ministry for many years. But they never seem to do well. They never seem to have a peace. They seem like they are always trying to prove something.

I recently went through my old seminary pictorial directory. I was able to locate 47 people I knew in seminary who I know where they are today. Of that 47, only eight remained in ministry. If you are doing the math, that is an 83 percent dropout rate.

Vocational ministry is a calling. It is not just another vocation. If you enter ministry for the wrong reasons, you will not likely do well. Indeed, you will not likely make it.

What are some of the terrible reasons to enter vocational ministry? Here are five of the most common failures:

Escape from a secular job. I know a man who has a huge desire to work fulltime in ministry for a church. But the only reason he ever articulates is his hatred of his middle management secular job. He sees ministry vocation only as an escape from the problems of corporate work. I hope his heart changes before he makes the leap.
Fulfilling family expectations. About one-third of my peers who dropped out of ministry came from families in vocational ministry. Don’t hear me wrongly. It is admirable to see multiple generations in ministry for the right reasons. But too many in ministry feel compelled to enter that world because of family pressure. One peer of mine told me, “Dad called me into ministry, not God.”
When your spouse is not supportive. Vocational ministry is demanding and can be exhausting. If ministers do not have the support of their spouses, their lives will be miserable from the point of entering vocational ministry. For those of you who have supportive spouses in ministry like me, count your blessings.
Not theologically prepared. I recently heard a man preach a sermon that had, sadly, several biblical and theological errors. Those errors did not go unnoticed by many members in the congregation. The role of teaching and preaching in ministry is not to be held lightly. Do not enter ministry theologically unprepared.
Skewed views of the demands of ministry. I was in a conversation with a 30-something pastor who came into ministry from the secular world. His conversation went something like this: “I had this idea that I would have all this free time and short work weeks. Ministry seemed like a piece of cake compared to the world I was coming from. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It is unbelievably demanding. I am on call 24-hours a day whether I admit it or not.”

For those who enter vocational ministry for the right reasons, the work can be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. For those who don’t, the frustration will seem unbearable, and the failure rate is high.

Pray for First Baptist Church, Fredericksburg

Location: Fredericksburg, Texas

Pastor: Tommy Russell

Weekly Worship: 8:30 & 11:00 AM, Central

Fast Facts: During the spring and summer, we have seen several horrific traffic accidents involving church vans and buses. FBC Fredericksburg, TX, is the latest church to experience this awful event. On Friday, June 9, their youth group was returning from camp and was involved in a terrible accident as one of their vans was hit head on. While the students have been released and are in good health and spirits, the driver, Jenny Loza—the pastor’s wife—is still in critical condition. Please pray that God will continue healing her broken body. Specifically, pray for the swelling on her brain to go down so the rest of her injuries can be addressed. Finally, be in prayer for your church and churches across the nation for safety as they travel this summer and in the future.

Website: FBCFbg.com

“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: June 24, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

The Top Ten Questions Pastor Ask Me
Five Big Problems for Small Churches, featuring Karl Vaters – Rainer on Leadership #338
Five Overcorrection Mistakes Churches Make
Four Common Gifts Churches Give to First-Time Guests
Five Danger Signs in Churches – Rainer on Leadership #339

 

The Top Three Reasons Church Growth Ideas Usually Fail in Smaller Churches — Karl Vaters

Thousands of faithful, godly pastors are leading healthy, vibrant churches with no skeletons in their closets, yet they continue to struggle numerically. Something else must be going on. From my decades of study, pastoral experience and conversations with hundreds of small church pastors, I’ve discovered three primary reasons church growth principles fail in small churches more often than they succeed.

 

6 Six-Month Bible Reading Plans to Finish the Year — Art Rainer

If you are like most, you’ve probably drifted away from your New Year resolutions. In fact, prior to reading this, you may have forgotten that you had set a few goals to begin with. Oops. Maybe developing consistency in reading the Bible was one of your goals. Or, maybe it wasn’t a goal, but you desire to make it a goal. Either way, July 1 provides a great opportunity start afresh. Regularly diving into the Bible is essential for our ability to thrive as Christ-followers. There are several great, 6-month Bible reading plans out there. Today, I want to provide you with a few to consider.

 

7 Rules for Keeping Pastoral Sanity — Chris Hefner

These seven rules for keeping pastoral sanity are not intended to be legalistic. Rather, I hope they will assist us in our leadership interactions with others. I’ve listed them in the negative for effect and hope they will stick out to you as they have to me.

 

12 Ways to Recognize Mediocrity in Your Ministry — Tony Morgan

How do you recognize mediocrity in your ministry? I asked the team at The Unstuck Group to share some ideas based on what they see in the churches we’ve served.

 

10 Quick Things You Can Do To Improve Your Church Website — Steven Kryger

Here are 10 quick things you can do today to continue to improve your church website and serve the people who use it.

 

10 Signs You Are Burning Out — Jim Essian

Burnout has nothing to do with capacity: whether you are a Ferrari or a Volvo you still need maintenance and fuel. Burnout is not about your workload: how much work you have doesn’t change the time allotted to you in a day, the energy you have, or the priority of going to the Father first. Make these lists for yourself and share them with a few people, and then run to the Lord of Rest.

 

Five Danger Signs in Churches – Rainer on Leadership #339

Podcast Episode #339

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

If any of these danger signs are present in your church, you need to take note. They can signal decline, dead theology, or even death of the church.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

There is a growing danger of the exclusivity of Christ being lost in many churches.
Any rationale that minimizes evangelism is contrary to Scripture.
Evangelism doesn’t just happen. It requires intentionality.
Actions should emanate from your preaching of the Word.
Your church’s missions and evangelism should focus locally as well as globally.
When you insist on always getting your way in a relationship, the relationship eventually will deteriorate.

The five danger signs we cover are:

Doubts about the exclusivity of salvation through Christ.
Waning efforts at evangelism.
Making doctrine and works either/or.
Forgetting Jerusalem.
Fighting rather than going and doing.


Episode Sponsors

The Timothy Track, from Midwestern Seminary, offers select residential M.Div. students placement in internship positions in a local church in the area. Now you can complement your studies with in-the-field ministry experience. In addition, all Timothy Track students will receive up to 12 credit hours for the internship and a 50% tuition scholarship for the first year.

Find out more at mbts.edu/TimothyTrack.

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. Their Fall Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor Coaching Networks are now open for registration, and our very own Dr. Rainer will be speaking at the Fall Lead Pastor Coaching Network.

So if you’re a Lead Pastor or an Executive Pastor looking for peer roundtable coaching, check it out at vanderbloemen.com/coaching. It’s limited to 16 folks, so apply today before it fills up.

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 Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Five Imminent Dangers in Churches

Four Common Gifts Churches Give to First-Time Guests

By Jonathan Howe

As we’ve seen churches become more intentional about guest assimilation, many give away a small gift to guests to make an impression and to convey appreciation for their visit. If your church decides to do this (and I would recommend that you do), the gifts don’t have to be overly expensive. But they should convey that you care about the guests.

Here are four popular gifts churches give to guests and some tips for how you can maximize their usefulness:

Coffee mugs or tumblers. This is probably the most common gift given to church guests. Churches typically print their logo or other information on the mug as well. If you do this, consider including the name of the church (if the logo doesn’t include it) and website on the mug to provide future reference for the guest.
Gift cards. Churches typically include these in thank you notes or welcome letters to the guest. The most common amounts on the gift card are either $5 or $10. Since they arrive with the letter, the guest is more likely to read the letter to find out why they got a gift card than if it’s just a letter in an envelope.
Books. These are often given out at a welcome center or guest information desk (as with coffee mugs) in exchange for a connection card. If you are going to give away a book, go with something that has a wide appeal but is focused on what you want the next step for the guest to be. I Am a Church Member has been used by several churches because it outlines the biblical basics of church membership.
Cookies or bread. Baked goods are another popular guest gift because they signify caring and a personal touch. I know many churches that have teams of volunteers who collect guest cards and have goodie baskets waiting on the front doorstep of guests when they get home after Sunday service. If your church does this, be sure to include information about the church with the baked goods that are delivered. Also, be mindful of common allergies. For example, cookies with peanut butter should probably be avoided.

Does your church provide any of these to guests? Have you tried something else? What has worked best for you?

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources as well as the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

Five Overcorrection Mistakes Churches Make

The pendulum swings in churches.

The congregation does not like a previous direction, so they overcompensate with the next move they make. Often, the overcompensation becomes a more challenging situation than the previous state.

Here are five overcorrection mistakes I frequently see in churches:

A different kind of pastor. The former pastor was evangelistic and outwardly focused, so the next pastor needs to be more concerned with pastoral care of the members. The former pastor preached 40 minutes, so the congregation looks for a pastor who keeps the sermon to 25 minutes or under. The former pastor led change. The new pastor needs to respect traditions. You get the picture.
A different emphasis on evangelism or discipleship. It is not unusual to see churches treat evangelism and discipleship as if they were two opposite spiritual disciplines. One positions holds that we must be evangelistic if we are to have anyone to disciple. The other position says we must disciple people so they will become naturally evangelistic. So churches can swing from one of these positions to the others. But the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 is clear that evangelism and discipleship are both/and, not either/or.
A different emphasis on reaching newcomers versus taking care of the members. This story is true. A church began connecting well with newcomers in the community and grew from 110 in worship attendance to 150 in just two years. Leaders in the church determined that the pastor and staff were spending too much time on newcomers and mandated they focus almost all their time on ministering to the members. The church closed its doors three years later. Again, the decision is not either/or, but both/and.
A different kind of leadership structure. The church had deacons who were not healthy servant/leaders. So the congregation decided they needed to have elders. The church then had a leadership structure of unhealthy elders. It is one thing to decide biblically on a new leaderships structure. But it’s the wrong thing to make the change to overcompensate for a current weak structure.
A different kind of system to oversee financial controls. The previous pastor and associate pastor were not good stewards of the church’s funds. They incurred credit card expenses with little accountability. When they left and new leaders came in, the church decided to have a system of micromanaging every dime spent. The new leaders left within a year, frustrated at the lack of trust and lack of freedom.

Be careful when you lead a church to make substantive changes. While the change may be absolutely necessary, the change can go too far.

It’s called overcompensation, and it never turns out well.

Five Big Problems for Small Churches, featuring Karl Vaters – Rainer on Leadership #338

Podcast Episode #338

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

Karl Vaters joins us to discuss issues found most often in small churches. However, these issues manifest themselves in any size church in any setting.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Small churches are not a problem, virtue, or excuse.
Just because your church is small does not mean you can’t do good ministry.
There’s not a single command to the New Testament church that can’t be accomplished by a small church.
The sooner you can assess a Sunday service or church event the better.
Churches should purposefully and intentionally equip members for ministry.
It is a pastor’s job (according to the New Testament) to equip others to do the work of ministry.

The five items we discuss are:

Holding on to Stale Traditions.
Poor or Nonexistent Planning.
Not Enough Assessment or Evaluation.
Too Much Inward Focus.
Depending on the Pastor Instead of Making Disciples.

About Karl Vaters

Karl Vaters has been a small church pastor for more than 30 years—the most recent 25+ years in his current church, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California. His popular blog, Pivot, is hosted at ChristianityToday.com/pivot and focuses specifically on issues related to leading in the small church.

Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. Their Fall Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor Coaching Networks are now open for registration, and our very own Dr. Rainer will be speaking at the Fall Lead Pastor Coaching Network.

So if you’re a Lead Pastor or an Executive Pastor looking for peer roundtable coaching, check it out at vanderbloemen.com/coaching. It’s limited to 16 folks, so apply today before it fills up.

Midwestern Seminary, one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America, exists to train leaders For The Church. The local church is God’s “Plan A” for the proclamation of the gospel, and there is no Plan B. And this is Midwestern’s vision and heartbeat—equipping pastors and other ministry leaders who are called to expand God’s mission in the world through the local church. At Midwestern Seminary: they train leaders ‘For The Church.’

Visit them online at MBTS.edu and start your ministry training today.

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 Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

The Grasshopper Myth