Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 234

Young Influencer List, April 2016

By Jonathan Howe

As I mentioned previously, when we interviewed Brad Lomenick for the Rainer on Leadership podcast, we talked about his Young Influencer List and the reasons behind why he compiles such a list. Brad encouraged me to do the same—to find young influencers in our sphere and make our audience aware of how these young leaders are impacting others for Kingdom advancement. The qualifications are quite simple: under 40 and making a Kingdom difference.

Once again, the goal with this list is not to inflate the egos of those named, but to make you, the readers of ThomRainer.com, aware of the dozens and dozens of Christian leaders who are advancing the gospel in their respective spheres of influence. And while some pundits may sit back and claim Christianity is declining or dying, these leaders are clearly making a statement that it will not happen on their watch. They are passionate about Christ Jesus, His gospel, and taking it to the ends of the earth.

So without further adieu, here is this month’s young influencer list:

Amy Whitfield (@acwhit) – Director of Communications at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC – In addition to her role at SEBTS, this week Amy was this summer. She became the first woman selected for that position in the modern era of the denomination. She also co-hosts the SBC This Week podcast.
Johnnie Moore (@JohnnieM) – Author, President of The KAIROS Company, and International Spokesperson for the Museum of the Bible based in LA, NYC, and DC – Johnnie is a busy guy. A former senior vice president at Liberty University, he’s the author of several books including his latest entitled Defying ISIS .
John Onwuchekwa (@jawno) – Lead Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Atlanta, GA – A Baylor and DTS grad, John co-founded Blueprint Church in Atlanta before planting Cornerstone in 2015.
Harvey Turner (@pastorharv) – Church planter and lead pastor at Living Stones Churches in Reno, NV – Harvey is the founding pastor at Living Stones Churches, a multi-site church with campuses all over the state of Nevada. He also serves as regional director of a large church planting network.
BJ Thompson (@bj116) – Speaker and co-founder of Build a Better Us based in Olive Branch, MS – For three years he served with recording artist Lecrae at Reachlife and completed a three-year pastoral residency at Fellowship Memphis church, under Bryan Loritts. Over the past 10 years he has partnered with several churches and ministries to help develop marriages, form small groups, and train leaders globally.
Elizabeth Hyndman (@edhyndman) – Editor for LifeWay Bible Studies and Social Media Strategist for LifeWay Women in Nashville, TN – Elizabeth edits many of the popular Bible studies produced by LifeWay and runs the social media accounts for one of our biggest in-house brands. She also blogs a bit on the side over at EDHyndman.com and CoffeeShoppers.net.

Please continue to pray for these individuals and their ministries. If you’d like to nominate a young influencer for consideration, let me know on Twitter: @Jonathan_Howe or in the comments section below. For previous young influencer lists, click here.

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week, and the managing editor of LifeWayPastors.com. 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.

The post Young Influencer List, April 2016 appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Five Reasons Why the Large Single Site Church Is Declining

One of the largely unspoken phenomenon of the past decade has been the decline in large churches located at only one site. Most of the large church growth today is taking place at multisite churches.

For clarity, I define a large church as a congregation with an average weekly worship attendance of 1,000 or more. In this article, I focus on just those churches located at one site. Larger churches with multiple sites have largely avoided this issue. They are growing more through multiple sites than larger services.

So why are we hearing more about the decline of these churches? Allow me to offer five reasons.

“Cultural Christians” are numerically declining. A cultural Christian is not really a Christian at all. These men and women attended church services in the past because it was the culturally acceptable thing to do. They were drawn to the services that were large in number because they thought they could escape further involvement. They, in essence, hid in the crowd. Cultural Christianity is disappearing rapidly in America. The decline in their numbers has largely impacted the churches with larger gatherings.
The majority of Millennials prefer smaller worship gatherings. They are thus less likely to attend a church with a single-service attendance of 1,000 or more.
The growth of church planting and church campuses. Simply stated, most of the numerical growth is migrating toward these new and smaller sites.
Assimilation is often a greater challenge in the larger gathering. If someone stops attending a large worship gathering, it is likely he or she will not be missed. If the person is not missed, there is no follow up and he or she drops out.
The perceived quality of worship services is no longer limited to larger churches. From 1980 to 2010, many church attendees shifted to larger worship services where they could experience a higher quality of worship. Today, many of the smaller churches are able to have similar quality.

Many multisite church leaders are reporting declines in their larger “home base church” services, but those numbers are masked by growth at other campuses. In many ways the multisite movement has been a great blessing in keeping larger churches on a growth trajectory.

Many of the large single site churches, however, obviously do not have other campuses to offset declines in their single site services. It is a largely unreported phenomenon. But it is a challenging reality in many churches.

Let me hear from you.

The post Five Reasons Why the Large Single Site Church Is Declining appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Seven Church Facility Trends – Rainer on Leadership #219

Podcast Episode #219

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio

On today’s podcast we discuss seven relevant trends that churches are facing when it comes to facilities. From the shift to smaller gathering spaces to what types of spaces are being built, facility trends are changing where and how local churches gather.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Churches will continue to close as the Builder Generation continues to die.
Millennials have swung the pendulum away from big box churches to more intimate settings.
Church facilities are some of the most underutilized facilities we have.
Church facilities can be used more effectively if the community is a part of the usage.
Small groups attendance is significantly greater when held on campus than when held in homes.
To be Christian is to no longer be favored in most communities.
When a church goes into a community, the entire quality of life in the area goes up.

The seven facility trends we discuss for the future of American churches are:

More acquisitions and mergers
Even smaller worship centers
More creative types of facilities
Seven-days-a-week usage
Community-focused
More on-campus small groups
More governmental opposition





Episode Sponsors

Midwestern Seminary, located in the heart of the Midwest, is one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America and offers a fantastic array of academic programs, including multiple online and residential options at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Midwestern’s new 81-hour Mdiv program, online program, and doctoral program have all been recognized as some of the most innovative and affordable in the country. There has never been a better time to begin your seminary education. Midwestern Seminary trains leaders ‘For The Church.’

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

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.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 I Will.

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

For the Church Luncheon at the SBC Annual Meeting
Sojourn Community Church
Lyle Schaller
The Seven-Day-A-Week Church

The post Seven Church Facility Trends – Rainer on Leadership #219 appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Ten Sentences That Make Pastors Cringe

Let me take you behind the scenes again in the life of a pastor.

For sure, your pastor is not likely to let you know the pain these brief sentences cause.

But, for most pastors, they hurt. They really hurt.

Here are ten of the most common painful sentences uttered to pastors by church members:

“I love you pastor, but . . .” The pastor will only hear the words after the “but.” And they usually are painful.
“Why didn’t you visit her?” Of course, she’s not a member of the church. She was in a hospital 70 miles away. And she’s married to the third cousin of the church member.
“Gotta minute?” This question is typically asked in the time frame of one to five minutes before the pastor preaches.
“Have you heard this podcast pastor?” Meaning: That podcast pastor is better than you.
“Pastor, people are saying . . .” Of course, there are no “people,” just the gutless person who won’t speak for himself.
“We’ve never done it that way before.” And that is one of the key reasons the church is dying.
“I do pay your salary, you know.” In other words, it’s not God’s money; it’s my money.
“I wish she had heard that sermon.” And the pastor was hoping you heard the sermon.
“I wish I worked just a few hours a week like you.” After all, the pastor just needs 30 minutes to prepare a sermon and 30 minutes to preach it.
“Your kids need to behave like pastor’s kids should behave.” You can find those standards in the Bible: Hezekiah 3:16.

What do you think of this list? Pastors, what would you add?

The post Ten Sentences That Make Pastors Cringe appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Pray for Fellowship Raleigh

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

Pastor: Matt Schoolfield

Weekly Worship: 10:00 AM, Eastern

Fast Facts: Launched in 2008, Fellowship Raleigh’s mission is: transforming religious and irreligious people through the gospel into passionate disciples of Jesus. Their vision is to make visible the truth, beauty, and compassion of the gospel through the church to urban families, campuses, and wherever their church is present and on mission through fellowship groups.

Fellowship Raleigh is a 7-year-old church plant that has been given an incredible opportunity to buy a church facility in downtown Raleigh. They are in the midst of this campaign (The Transformission Campaign) right now, and commitment Sunday is next Sunday, May 1. Please pray for commitment Sunday, and that God will provide and also inspire their people with God’s vision to reach their community with the Gospel.

Website: FellowshipRaleigh.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..

The post Pray for Fellowship Raleigh appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Notable Voices: April 23, 2016

Something Rotten in the Local Church — Lore Wilbert

Lore shares how we should respond when something negative happens in our local church.

 

3 Tips for Leading a Volunteer-Led Church — Josh Hedger

Josh shares three ways you can lead your volunteers better. The first point is one that is probably found in onle a small percentage of churches.

 

3 Encouraging Trends About Millennials and Money — Art Rainer

Millennials appear to be learning from the debt-riddled problems facing many of the Gen-X generation. This is an encouraging sign.

 

10 Reasons Pastors Must Be Prayer Warriors — Nathan Busenitz

Nathan shares ten reminders about pastors and prayer with supporting quotes from pastors throughout history.

 

10 Tips for Leading a Church Service Well — Rory Shiner

The specifics here may not apply to everyone depending on your ecclesiology, but the principles are good reminders of the thought that should be given to leading a service.

 

The Pastor’s “Typical” Week — Paul Lamey

Paul shares three reminders of what a pastor’s week reflects. How does your week shape up on these reflections?

 

The post Notable Voices: April 23, 2016 appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Church Outreach: What Has Worked and What Hasn’t – Rainer on Leadership #218

Podcast Episode #218

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio

On today’s episode, we recap a recent post on the outreach methods churches used to promote their Easter services. While we cover what worked, we also take a look at what didn’t work and why some of these ideas seemed to fall short.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Personal invites are still the best way to get people to come to your church.
Don’t start anything in your church without first praying about it.
Prayer should be integral to everything you do as a church.
A lot of churches do nothing extra for Easter because they think people will naturally come anyway.
Personal conversations are still the most effective way to invite people to attend your church worship service.
Online promotion is the most effective way for churches to spend dollars earmarked for marketing.
If your church goes door-to-door to invite people, take the time to talk to people.
When you strategically plan your outreach, you see greater participation and more opportunities for success.
Strategic planning is a stewardship of time.

The six things that seemed to work for churches were:

Personal Invites.
Facebook Promotion.
Coordinated Graphics.
Door-to-door Invites.
Intentional, Strategic Planning.
Prayer.

The four things that didn’t work were:

Door-to-door Drop-offs.
Extra Signage.
Doing Nothing.
Not Planning.


Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Midwestern Seminary, located in the heart of the Midwest, is one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America and offers a fantastic array of academic programs, including multiple online and residential options at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Midwestern’s new 81-hour Mdiv program, online program, and doctoral program have all been recognized as some of the most innovative and affordable in the country. There has never been a better time to begin your seminary education. Midwestern Seminary trains leaders ‘For The Church.’

Visit them online at MBTS.edu/Rainer 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 I Will.

Resources

Search by William Vanderbloemen
Invite Your One
The Next Future Church Staff Position: Pastor of Community Evangelism

The post Church Outreach: What Has Worked and What Hasn’t – Rainer on Leadership #218 appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Six Components of a Strategic Church Communications Plan

By Jonathan Howe

In a post last month here at ThomRainer.com, I wrote about the four reasons your church needs a communications plan. I also promised to follow up this month with a post on the components of a church communications plan.

While this paradigm may not fit every church, you can use it as you develop your plans for informing your congregants and promoting events or initiatives in your church. These six components, if identified and executed well, can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your church’s communication.

Identify Your Audience. Knowing who you are trying to reach with your information is critical. Before you can determine what channel to use, what words to say, or what your goal might be, you must first know to whom you are communicating. If you don’t get your audience right, you won’t have much success.
Identify Your Channel. Once you determine to whom you are speaking, you need to identify how best to reach them. And with the rise of online communication, texting, and social media, this component has gotten more and more complex. Churches have more communications tools at their disposal than ever before. But so does everyone else. So competition for attention and retention is also at an all-time high.
Determine Your End Goal. All communication from your church needs to have a purpose. And that purpose needs to be as specific as possible. Knowing why you are communicating helps you stay focused on the message.
Craft Your Message. Now that you know the who, the how, and the why, it’s time to work on the what. It might seem strange for the message crafting to be so far down in the order, but once you have worked your way to this point, the message becomes easier to craft and fewer errors are made with the content. When you have the who, why, and how, the what almost writes itself.
Execute the Plan. This might be the area in which churches struggle the most when it comes to communicating. They plan and plan, but never get around to executing the plan. It’s the communications equivalent of analysis paralysis. Whether this failure to execute is driven by fear of upsetting members or because it’s never been done that way before, it must be overcome for a church to communicate effectively. Be wise in your communications, but don’t be afraid to try new things.
Analyze the Results. This is the missing piece in many communications plans. Because we often work on the urgent or the upcoming, we miss evaluating what we have done to see if it actually worked. This step also informs future communications because you can test new ideas and compare them to previous results to find what works best.

While there may be more that goes into specific planning at your church, these six elements can help shape your communications strategy.

Do you have anything you would add to these? Have you used these components in the communications strategy at your church?

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week, and the managing editor of LifeWayPastors.com. 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.

The post Six Components of a Strategic Church Communications Plan appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Seven Ways Church Members Should Prepare for a Sermon

What if church members began their own form of sermon preparation?

For countless decades, we have heard about the role of pastors in sermon preparation. The number of hours they need to prepare. The priority of preparation. The role of prayer in sermon preparation.

But what if church members prepared for each sermon they heard? What if they believed their roles as recipients of the Word are also crucially important?

I can see incredible church revitalization taking place if church members took on their own responsibilities of sermon preparation. Here are seven ways members can actively prepare for sermons.

Pray for the sermon. For a few minutes, the church member should pray for the upcoming sermon. That prayer might take place during the week, the night before the preaching, or the morning of the preaching.
Pray for the pastor who is preaching. Pray that the pastor will understand God’s message for that text. Pray that the pastor will have no distractions. Pray that God’s Spirit will fill the pastor in both the preparation and delivery of the sermon.
Pray for yourself as you prepare to hear the sermon. Pray that God will speak to you through the message. Pray that you will not be distracted. Pray for clarity of mind and an open heart to receive the message.
Read the biblical text before the sermon is preached. If possible, read the text from which the pastor will preach. Read it thoroughly. Read it prayerfully.
Take notes. Take notes as the pastor preaches. You will have a greater focus and greater retention. Review the notes at least once during the next week.
Seek an application to your life. Ask God for discernment to help you understand how the sermon should change your life. Seek to understand the sermon not only in its biblical context, but in your life as well.
Share with the pastor “one thing.” If possible, share with your pastor one significant takeaway from the sermon. Pastors hear countless “good job, pastor,” or “nice message, pastor,” but they long to know if God really made a difference in the lives of the church members through the preached word. If you are able to communicate just one takeaway from the sermon in person, by email, or in social media, your pastor will be greatly encouraged.

The preaching of God’s Word is central to the life of the church. It makes sense that pastors should give it the highest priority.

But doesn’t it also make sense that church members should prepare as well?

Let me know what you think.

The post Seven Ways Church Members Should Prepare for a Sermon appeared first on ThomRainer.com.

Seven Reasons for Optimism in American Churches – Rainer on Leadership #217

Podcast Episode #217

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio

On today’s podcast we discuss why we are optimistic about the state of the church in North America. The sky is not falling, and here are seven particular reasons why that is the case. And we even snuck an Al Gore reference into today’s episode.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

The influx of church planters has been a good thing for the state of the church in North America.
Church splits are no longer the most common way new churches start, and that’s a good thing.
Church planters are starting more churches with evangelistic DNA than ever before.
New churches have the opportunity to have a more intentional evangelistic DNA than established churches.
Millennials are pushing churches toward more of a community emphasis.
One of the main reasons the American church has been unhealthy over the past few decades is because of its inward focus.
It’s hard to say a church is about others when it spends all of the church’s money on the members.

The seven reasons for optimism in American churches we discuss are:

New churches replacing dying churches
New churches truly becoming evangelistic
Balance of practical and classical training for pastors and staff
Better use of facilities
Millennials moving church members to the community
Re-examination of church budgets
Church revitalization





Episode Sponsors

Midwestern Seminary, located in the heart of the Midwest, is one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America and offers a fantastic array of academic programs, including multiple online and residential options at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Midwestern’s new 81-hour Mdiv program, online program, and doctoral program have all been recognized as some of the most innovative and affordable in the country. There has never been a better time to begin your seminary education. Midwestern Seminary trains leaders ‘For The Church.’

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

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.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 I Will.

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

How Do I Know if My Church Is Evangelistically Effective?
I Am a Church Member

The post Seven Reasons for Optimism in American Churches – Rainer on Leadership #217 appeared first on ThomRainer.com.