Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 34

8 Things that Would Happen if We Truly Viewed the Word of God as Sweet like Honey to Us

I realize this post is a bit unusual for this site, but I want us to think about this truth: we who seek to lead churches toward growth and revitalization must love and obey the Word if we want God to bless our efforts. With that truth in mind, I am mindful today of the psalmist’s view of the Word: 

“They [the laws of the Lord] are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.” (Ps. 19:10).“How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey.” (Ps. 119:103).

The psalmist felt that way, but I’m not convinced all of us are. At least, I know I’m not always there. Here, though, are some things that would happen in our lives if we truly saw the Word of God this way:

We would read the Word more. That’s because it’s so sweet to us. No matter how busy we are, we would make the time to read it. Even a few minutes tasting the Word would encourage and change us.We would hunger for it. It would be so potent in our lives that our soul would long each day to meet God through His Word. We would crave Him more and more each day.We could never get enough of it. Even if we were to “eat” it every day, we would want more. The Word is so sweet that the more we get, the more we want; it both quenches our hunger and increases it at the same time.We would miss it when we don’t read it. Gone would be the days when we simply neglected reading the Bible. We would not rest well knowing that we had missed the opportunity to taste its sweetness on a given day.We would no longer be enamored by what the world offers us to “taste.” We chase temporary stuff that might taste sweet for a moment, but burns us in the end. All those things would lose their power once we’ve tasted the true sweetness of God’s Word.We would delight more in teaching the Word. When the Lord’s teachings are so powerful in our own lives, we can’t wait to teach others. We would want those we lead to have the same experience with the Lord and His Word.Others would take note of our passion. The godliest, Spirit-filled leaders I know have the Word of God dripping from their lips. They live in the Word—and it’s noticeable. That’s what would happen in our lives if the Word truly were sweet to us.  Our churches would be stronger. That happens any time we leaders deepen our own walk with the Lord. What the Lord does in us then spills over into the lives of those we shepherd. The sheep will then also find the Word to be sweet like honey—and hunger for more.

How about you? Is the Word sweet to you? 

If not, ask the Lord to restore your desire for His Word as you lead His church. I encourage you to leave a comment below and let our Church Answers family know how we can best pray for you.

 

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Five Metaphors That Describe Why In-Person Attendance at Churches Will Grow in Importance

You’ve heard a lot about how the pandemic hurt church attendance.

Yeah. Me too. It’s true, but it’s becoming a bit tiresome.

We can watch online. We can study the Bible digitally. “Going to church” is no longer needed. 

Yep, I’ve heard them too. How many times have we heard the overused pseudo-explanation, “the church is the people, not a building”? Those people are supposed to gather somewhere, and it’s usually a building. 

Now, much to my own personal delight, we are seeing an incipient movement push back against the “you-don’t-have-to-attend-church-to-be-obedient-to-God” crowd. We are seeing early signs that a number of people were awakened in the pandemic to the importance of in-person community, particularly in churches. 

That is why our churches need to be prepared and to be proactive for more people coming to our in-person worship services and our in-person small groups or Sunday school classes or whatever you call them. 

Perhaps we can best understand the role of the local church metaphorically. Here are five of my favorites:

1. The family meal versus the individual takeout dinner. For years, families spent time around the table. They would converse with each other instead of getting a takeout meal and looking at their smartphone. It was a time where family members connected and got to know each other. It was an in-person event that took place several times a week. The disconnected family member is like the disconnected church member who no longer attends in-person for worship services and small groups.

2. A bonfire versus an electric heater. I love a bonfire on the beach. I enjoy more than the warmth on a cool night; I enjoy others in person. The setting provides those times where we can share stories, laugh, and get to know one another. The electric heater provides warmth, but it does not provide connection. It is like the digital church: functional but not personal.

3. The live concert versus streaming music. I remember the first time I heard “Red Rubber Ball” by The Cyrkle in a concert. I was hooked on that 60s one-hit wonder because I not only enjoyed the catchy tune, I shared the delight with others who were attending. We can listen to Christian music and hymns via digital means, but it’s nothing like singing together in-person in church in a spirit of true worship.

4. Sailing together versus watching a travel show. For one of our wedding anniversaries, I leased a small sailboat with a captain for a half-day. Being with my wife for those few hours and seeing the pure joy she experienced was incomparable to watching a television show about sailing. Worshiping together is the sailboat. Watching a digitally streaming worship service is the television travel show.

5. Live theater versus Netflix. I have been to a few Broadway shows and a few other live shows. While I appreciate the convenience of watching a chosen movie on Netflix, it is nothing like feeling and seeing the emotions of those watching a play in the room with me. Church is akin to live theater. You connect with those who are physically present. You not only hear a sermon and sing worship music, but you also worship together with others. 

We are encouraged by the early indicators pointing toward a rebirth and growth of the in-person worship services and small groups. If there is a place where people should be together, it is that place of community where we worship together and enjoy one another in small groups.

This trend is one worthy of watching.

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4 Keys to Creating A Culture of Trust

Trust is eroding in various sectors of our society, including education, government, and even religious institutions. As followers of Jesus, we have a responsibility not only to possess good character and integrity but also to dedicate our time and efforts toward instilling and promoting these values both individually and corporately as image bearers of God. 

During these challenging times, it’s essential for leaders in ministry to recognize that they have the opportunity to cultivate healthy and reliable cultures. Whether you’re a pastor, lay leader, or participating in a staff meeting or casual conversation, every interaction presents a chance to make a positive impact and invest your time and influence for the benefit of others and the glory of God.

Shut Down Gossip 

Talk to one another, not about one another. Intentionally creating spaces for psychological safety, vulnerability, and mutual respect is a crucial first step in nurturing belonging and connectedness among members. As a leader, gossip has to stop with you, and then enforced when others overstep the boundary. 

Gossiping and speaking negatively toward those on staff or in your church can cause irreparable harm to individuals and undermine the church’s mission. To avoid such situations, it’s important to handle disagreements and frustrations in a constructive manner. Having open communication and speaking directly and respectfully to coworkers about any issues is the best way to address any work-related concerns.

Recently I found myself in a situation where one of my volunteer team members came to me complaining and frustrated about how another team member waited until the last minute to fulfill her part of an event, which then led to my team member having to rush and problem solve in the last moments leading up to the event. When she came to me, I listened and then asked her if she had spoken with the other team member first. She had not. In order for both of them to grow and understand the need for everyone to work together as a team, they each needed to come together and hear one another both about where to improve and to work together moving forward. 

Celebrate One Another

The things you choose to celebrate within your organization will likely be repeated. In a parenting and adoption class, an analogy was given using fertilizer to explain that the traits and characteristics you emphasize as a parent will flourish and grow in your child. The same is true of our work and ministry relationships. For instance, if an employee, who is usually late to staff meetings, arrives on time, acknowledging their effort and expressing appreciation with a simple statement like “I see your effort in getting here on time today. I appreciate you” can help to celebrate that employee or team member. Finding ways to celebrate your team, staff, or group helps push people toward the core values and character you hope to develop in them and your church as a whole.

One other key benefit of celebrating one another is to make central the core purpose and mission that you are on together. Celebrating when someone shares the gospel, completing a large community event, or highlighting the person who stepped up and filled a needed gap are all ways to promote missional living, faithfulness, and sacrificial teamwork. We don’t just execute tasks, we point to others to see how their investments impact the team, church family, and Kingdom of God. 

Grow Together

Being mindful of how we handle our responsibilities and interact with others is vital for the health and growth of our churches and teams. It is unfair to expect perfection from ourselves and those around us all of the time, which is why we need to expect and strive towards growth in the weak areas of our teams. 

After any major decision, event, or shift in practice, I always want to make sure to have an opportunity to discuss tweaks and areas of improvement to make the whole better. First starting as a leader and verbalizing where I could have done better or where I dropped the ball then helps to give freedom for others to own their areas of growth as well as collaborate together in their different strengths to move forward with a unified vision.

By intentionally having conversations around clarity and collaboration, you are able to walk forward together with understanding and one voice while valuing the diversity of perspectives. 

Be A Person Who Is Faithful & Consistent

One of the hard parts about creating a culture of trust is that in our current culture cynicism and assumption happen more than faithfulness. We will talk up a big plan in a meeting and then drop the ball when it comes to our follow-through. Whether it is due to being over-committed or a deeper need for character development and growth, we can often find ourselves being the ones who fuel the distrust within our teams without even knowing it. It is easy to rationalize or shrug off our own missteps than to own where we have failed and ask for forgiveness.

Building a trustworthy culture starts with you. Every day you choose to be a person of character, faithfulness, and consistency despite what temptation there may be to shrink back in work ethic, pass the blame, or assume the worst of a leader or team member.

I love how Paul describes the Philippian church as being of one mind, one Spirit, and one purpose (Phil 2:2). As we strive and work toward healthy teams and culture, we not only move the mission forward together, but we show a watching world what it means to be changed by the gospel and sent to proclaim it.

For more reading on creating cultures of health and trust, I highly recommend Henry Cloud’s new book “Trust: Knowing When to Give it, When to Withhold it, How to Earn it, and How to Fix it When it Gets Broken” where he teaches that there are 5 essentials to trust.

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The Gritty Work of Church Revitalization: An Unglamorous Calling for the Glory of God

Ministry isn’t glamorous. And the moment that ministry does become glamorous, you become an anti-minister. Church revitalization is gritty work, but God is glorified in the impossible challenge of leading a church back to health.

The church’s biggest problem is not a lack of giving, a lack of people, or a lack of leadership. The church’s biggest problem is the lack of assurance in pursuing God’s glory. Slow giving trends are a symptom of a greater problem. The decline in average worship attendance is a symptom of a greater problem. Poor leadership is a symptom of a greater problem. The solution to the church’s problem is a tireless pursuit of God’s glory.

Glory implies weight, something substantial or lasting. To glory in something is to show it is central and most important. Nothing should equal the weight of God in your life. Every great leader dies. Ethics deteriorate. Economies putter out. The best buildings crumble. The highest-rated schools phase in and out. The biggest churches come and go. Only the glory of God carries with it the weight of blessed assurance.

We don’t just recruit people to come to church on the weekend. We compel people to become active participants in the most incredible mission this world has ever known—the proclamation of the glory of God to the ends of the earth. Why do we exist? The only way it matters is if our life’s mission is bringing glory to God.

The prophet Isaiah records clear words from God about his glory: “I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them” (Isaiah 43:7, NLT). You were made for this. Made to be saved. Redeemed to be sent. Sent for the glory of God. Dig into the grit of ministry and find God’s glory. Rely on the Holy Spirit over personal charm. Depend on prayer over strategy. Give up self-reliance and become powerless for the name of Christ. You may never be recognized for your work. You may go decades before someone thanks you for your ministry.

We need more unglamorous pastors like Ambrose Gilbert Sapp, my wife’s grandfather. He toiled in obscurity among the rolling fields of Kentucky farms, shepherding in poverty without any glory or recognition. He preached the gospel until he died, and the next pastor took his place. Give us more faithful servants like Ambrose Sapp. There’s no way to know with certainty, but I believe thousands are in God’s Kingdom because of his faithfulness, including my wife.

If God can save any person, then He can save any church. Yours included. The work is gritty but worth it.

This article is adapted from an excerpt in The Church Revitalization Checklist: A Hopeful and Practical Guide for Leading Your Congregation to a Brighter Tomorrow, published by Tyndale. 

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The Future of Work in Church: Ten Realities You Might Not Know

AI. Robotics. Work-from-anywhere. The disappearing middle manager. The stress of blue-collar and service workers. Gigs and side gigs.

The headlines state the obvious. Work is changing. The pandemic accelerated the change. Workers are adjusting. Companies are adjusting. The marketplace is adjusting.

I am concerned, however, that most churches are not adjusting. 

The most common question we get at Church Answers about work in the church is, “What is the next full time staff person we need to hire?” But, in most churches, that is not the right question. Indeed, most churches do not or will not even have the financial option to ask that question. 

The better question is, “What is the future of work at church?” As church leaders ask that question, the answer becomes clearer and more relevant. 

We do not have all the answers to the question. What we do have, however, are troves of data and conversations with church leaders. We are also watching closely the future of work beyond churches. Based on what we see at this point, we can offer ten realities for church leaders and members.

In person worship gatherings will be more important. Churches should staff accordingly. With the increase of remote work and digital communications, the yearning for in-person connections is growing. The church is the place such connections are meant to take place.  The majority of churches in five years will have a non-church organization using their facilities on weekdays. Thus, the future of work will not be in a church building for most churches for five to six days a week. Small groups will be even more vital to the health of congregations. Churches should staff accordingly. The yearning for in-person community will go beyond the gathered worship services. Bible teaching, ministry, discipleship, evangelism, and relationships will find their hub in small groups.  Office workers will disappear. They will largely be replaced by virtual workers whose efficiency could be two to three times greater. In other words, one 20-hour virtual worker might replace two 40-hour office workers.  Part-time ministers will increasingly be the dominant work choice. Full-time ministers are disappearing rapidly. The study by Faith Community Today (FACT) was stunning. The median attendance of a church today is 65 compared to 137 in 2000. Most churches cannot afford full-time ministers today. In a non-scientific survey we did of churches at Church Answers, we found that 94% of the churches under 100 in attendance had zero or one full-time ministry staff person, usually the pastor. Today, two-thirds of the churches in America have an average attendance under 100. The numbers of smaller churches are increasing, which means more part-time ministers.  We must be prepared for the dominance of bi-vocational and co-vocational ministers in our churches. Indeed, that is fast becoming the reality.  This new future of work will require more “raising up” of ministry staff within our churches. Such is a major reason we began Church Answers University last year. We desired to come alongside church leaders and offer ministry training and education that are affordable, attainable, and accessible (see www.ChurchAnswers.university).  The enigma in the future of work in churches is the positions of student ministry and children’s ministry. We do not see a consistent pattern about the future of these ministry positions. If we begin to see a clear trend, we will let you know.  Pastors and ministry staff should prepare now for this new reality. Not only should they get their churches ready, but they also need to be asking the question, “What do I do if I have to become bi-vocational from full-time?”  Technology will continue to change the work of pastoral care. Since COVID, more church members in the hospital and homebound indicate they are fine with a call, a text, or a Zoom prayer time. Pastoral care is time-consuming, but there are growing efficiencies in technology that are good solutions for church members. 

Of course, we don’t have all the answers to the future of work in church. As we get more clarity, we will share it with you. In the meantime, let us know what you see in this new future.

 

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Four Ways to Shift Church Culture from Apathy to Expectation of Growth

The American church is at a crisis moment. Only 1% of churches have an ongoing evangelism emphasis.

Apathy in the church is nothing new. The New Testament letters demonstrate how a lack of enthusiasm for God’s work goes back to the inception of the early church. In Acts 1, after Jesus ascended, two angels came down to tell the disciples to get moving.

“Why are you standing here staring into heaven?” The angels reminded the disciples not to delay kingdom work.

Why is the American church apathetic today? I could dedicate an entire book to the subject, but one fundamental problem stands out.

A culture of broken rhythms discourages excitement.

I broke my leg a couple of years ago. The injury prevented me from exercising, especially running, which I love to do daily. The broken rhythm of exercise affected my psyche. After I healed, it took much more effort to get back into the exercise habit.

When people miss several days of a Bible reading plan, they can get discouraged and stop reading altogether. When someone misses church regularly, the broken rhythm quells excitement and creates a growing apathy. Every missed worship service adds a level of indifference. Over time, these layers build and become a barrier to obedience.

Attendance frequency continues to get worse. The person who once attended every other week now attends one out of four weeks—momentum stalls when people do not gather frequently. When absent from church, people direct their passions to other endeavors.

Apathy is a lack of enthusiasm for what you’re supposed to do. This problem is not isolated to individuals in a few congregations. The problem is cultural across almost every congregation. The issue has become a phenomenon in North America. It’s hard to build excitement if many people in your church have broken rhythms of discipleship.

You can begin the shift from apathy to an expectation of growth.

Cultural changes occur more slowly than technical changes. For example, you can figure out the best technical ways to communicate to your congregation (text, emails, newsletter, etc.), but solving a cultural problem of poor communication is a more involved process.

What are some ways a cultural shift to an outward focus can occur? How can churches restart the process of getting people back into a healthy rhythm?

1. Celebrate the bright spots in your worship services. You become what you celebrate. Tell the stories of people who do kingdom work. Positive reinforcement produces a lasting cultural change. Negative reinforcement is a short-term fix that utilizes guilt. One of the best ways to share these stories is through videos. Almost every church today can create a two-minute video and show it to the congregation in worship. One video will not likely make a cultural change. But multiple testimonies over time will help with the shift.

2. Include ways to put boots on the ground in your missions budget. Almost everyone who goes on their first cross-cultural mission trip returns with an inspiration to do more locally. Our church serves the homeless every week. Those who volunteer in this ministry are some of our most dedicated. When we craft our missions budget, one of the driving factors is how many people we can get on the field. We offer scholarships to families who travel internationally together for the first time. Our missions budget is just as much about boots on the ground as it is about providing funds to our partners.

3. Hold staff accountable for gospel conversations. “Gospel conversation” is the first item on our weekly staff meeting agenda. Every meeting begins with our team telling stories of their efforts to invite people to church and share Christ with people from the neighborhood. Every week, we highlight this effort. Gospel conversations are first on the agenda because they are most important. You could do the same with your leadership team or elders if you do not have paid staff.

4. Resource ministries focused on the youngest generations. Does your children’s ministry receive as much budget support as your worship ministry? If not, then something is wrong. This one is simple. Your budget allocations will reveal your church’s passion. You may say you are passionate about reaching the next generation, but if your budget does not reflect this desire, you are simply speaking empty words. Cultural change will not occur without budgetary support.

An apathetic church lacks enthusiasm for Great Commission work. Can you muster through apathy and be obedient to God’s commands? Perhaps for a season. Eventually, you will start to look like the Ephesus church in Revelation—doing enough to appear obedient but lacking love for Christ. But you can break through this apathy. Indeed, we must.

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My Testimony: One Reason Our Churches Must Invest in Children and Teens

Here’s the way I’ve previously described how I heard the gospel:

I first heard about Christ when God planted in my seventh-grade classroom a crazy, fanatical 12-year-old Pentecostal preacher whose goal that year was to win me to the Lord. His approach was simple: he met me at the classroom door each morning and told me, “Chuck, it’s a good thing you lived through the night.” He would then continue, “If you hadn’t, you’d be in hell right now. But you can receive Jesus into your heart right now.” His technique was suspect, but somewhere in the midst of that message God drove truth into my heart, and my life has never been the same. ¹

My friend was “in my face” with the gospel every day, and I hated it at the time. I’d also try to persuade him to adjust his technique a bit if he were in my evangelism class today, but I would never want to change these facts: 

1. He loved Jesus. I didn’t understand it all at the time, but I couldn’t deny there was something real in his life. I later understood my friend so loved Jesus that he wanted to live in Great Commission obedience to his redeemer.

2. He loved me. Again, it made little sense to me then, but I now know how much he genuinely cared about me. Even as a seventh grader, he loved me enough that he was willing to risk ridicule and rejection to let me know about Jesus.

3. He was persistent. He did not give up, no matter how many times I told him I wasn’t interested in his message. He bugged me back then, but today I’m grateful for him. God knew I needed someone to keep pressing me with the gospel.

4. He, his mother, and his grandmother prayed for me. I didn’t know it immediately, but they combined their efforts on their knees and asked God to save me. God heard their prayers, and He made me His child in August of 1974.

5. He knew enough to evangelize me: the facts of the gospel and the story of his own conversion. He was hardly a theologian. In no way could he have discussed much beyond what he told me, but he did tell me the gospel. I heard him when he said I was a sinner separated from a holy Creator, but God gave His Son to pay the penalty of death for my sin. He had, in fact, clearly experienced God’s grace himself.

6. He was one example of why we need to invest in children and teens in our churches. He was 12 years old, but God used him. In fact, he was more zealous for Jesus than most adults I’ve seen in churches over the years. Little did he or I know what God would do through either of us in the decades to come, but the story began with a 12-year-old whose family and church had taught him the gospel and challenged him to share it. Our families and churches must make the same commitment.

What is your church’s commitment to children and teens?

¹ Brad J. Waggoner and E. Ray Clendenen, eds. Calvinism. B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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The One Big Reason Church Attendance Is Declining (and Most Church Leaders Are Unaware)

This one data point might be the most important information on the church and faith I have heard this year.

We at Church Answers have done a pretty good job of explaining the “what” of attendance decline: the frequency of church attendance has declined, and people have simply left the church altogether.

What we have yet to articulate, at least to this point, is the “why” of attendance decline. Why are so many people attending less frequently, and why are they dropping out completely? Our challenge, of course, was getting into the minds of these dropouts and delving into their motivations for leaving. We are fortunate a major research project did just that. 

The One Big Reason 

PRRI recently released a massive research project that explains the “why” factor.

People are attending less or not at all for one major reason: In the words of the PRRI study, they “stopped believing in the religion’s teachings.”

That reason was the overwhelming motive of the dropouts (56% versus 30% for the second highest motive).

Did you get that? They left church because they said they did not believe what the church taught. But I suspect that they did not believe because they really did not know what the church taught. In other words, we have an assimilation and dropout problem because our churches are not adequately teaching the Bible and the essentials of the Christian faith.

The Evidence Is Clear 

We have been conducting church health surveys since 1996. We have millions of data points in this longitudinal study (meaning we ask the same questions over several years).

There are two alarming data points in our studies. First, churches are rapidly abandoning evangelism. Second, church members are steadily denying the essentials of the Christian faith. The PRRI study complements our own findings.

Where Do We Go from Here?

While this problem is not solved with a silver bullet solution, we can begin to emphasize three major actions in our churches. We have worked with enough churches to know that this approach goes a long way toward instilling belief in those who regularly attend your church. 

Restart the process with a congregational-wide study of the essentials of the Christian faith. Here is the small group/Sunday school class solution Church Answers offers: https://www.churchequip.com/courses/a-clear-and-concise-guide-to-christian-beliefs.Move your small groups and Sunday school classes more to explicit Bible teaching. While there are many good small group studies available, this new research suggests strongly we need to have more direct Bible teachings in our groups.Provide your church members a plan to be in the Bible every day. This plan would be more than offering a through-the-Bible reading plan at the beginning of the calendar year. It would mean encouraging them every week to remain in the Bible. The writer of Hebrews says it best: “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires (Hebrews 4:12).

It’s pretty clear. People are leaving our churches because they are not grounded in the faith. 

The solution is clear as well. We have to return to the basics and essentials of the Christian faith, and get our church members more immersed in the Bible. 

Yes, the solution is clear. The question is clear as well: Will we do it?

Resources:

Research cited: https://www.prri.org/research/religio...

Small group/Sunday school study: https://www.churchequip.com/courses/a...

 

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Teen Ministry: Why Their Questions Matter and Why We Should be Prepared to Answer

The foundations of teen identity are shaken and eroded by the simple yet complex question, “Who are you?”

Teens are asked this question in every social interaction, whether at school, in public, or even through social media. The question of who they are is asked by judgmental eyes assessing what they wear, through passive-aggressive comments about their hobbies, through challenging statements to see how they will respond, or simply outright. It is a societal question that teens are bombarded with daily and challenged to answer by their peers, their friends, their elders, and the online community looking for chinks in their proverbial armor of filters and perfectly crafted Instagram profiles.

“Who are you?”

But it is not enough that this question simply resounds as an underlying current in teen culture. No, culture and society have their answer to this question and are determined to make it sound like the ONLY answer for teens. Be like this person. Desire this kind of life. Treat your community this way. Have these morals. Covet until you have. And if not, then you are not enough. If not, then you are broken. If not, then you are naïve and sheltered. If not, then you are not attractive.

Family and youth ministers have a unique opportunity to speak life into the lives of these teens who are wrestling with the very question of their identity and grappling with the questions of “Who am I?” and “Where do I fit?” It gives new meaning to the idea that the church and youth groups are where teens can wrestle with their doubts and struggles and leave with a firmer belief of who God is and whose they are.

“Who are you?”

If we, as the church community, are not helping teens answer that question with scripture and biblical understanding of who created them and why, then the world will scream its answer into their minds. Instead of the gentle, loving whisper of biblical truth, they will hear the clang of the fallen world. Their identity will be up for debate and dictated by society’s current fads.

So how do we get teens to listen in and have tough conversations about teen culture and identity specifically? Axis is an organization dedicated to starting lifelong conversations around these topics and has created guides to help generate honest dialogue with teens. The title of their recent bundle is Parent Guides to Finding True Identity, but these resources can also be helpful tools for pastors to navigate the tough conversations and questions with teens in their ministry.

The Parent Guides to Finding True Identity bundle contains guides on teen identity, body image, sexuality, eating disorders, and fear and worry. These resources are available to help us better understand the realities our teens are facing and speak into the conversation around teen identity with biblical wisdom. Each guide contains biblical insight and discussion questions around the topic, giving the tools to navigate conversations that are hard for both the adult and teens.

The booklets can also be given to parents as a resource or have in the church library or bookstore to direct parents to when needed. Some teens may not have parents who care enough or are biblically grounded enough to have these conversations. We, as the church, are. Even in families where the parents are engaged, sometimes the parents need help, or teens feel they can open up more with peers.

Help teens in your ministry answer the question “Who are you?” with biblical wisdom. Grab your resources today!

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The Best Metric to Determine Evangelistic Health in Your Church

I fear too many churches are sitting still and becoming apathetic with evangelism. Unfortunately, this apathy means fewer people are hearing the gospel. It’s time to move outward again.

The Conversion Ratio

It’s helpful to diagnose the degree of the problem in your church. One way of determining evangelistic health is through a metric called conversion ratio. This ratio tells you how many people in your church it takes to win one person for Christ.

A healthy church will have a conversion ratio of 20:1 or less. The smaller the conversion ratio, the fewer people it takes in your church to reach others. Smaller is better with this metric. For example, a conversion ratio of 1:1 means each person in your church is reaching one person for Christ each year. A conversion ratio of 100:1 means that for every one hundred people in your church, only one person is reached for Christ per year.

Determining Your Conversion Ratio

You can calculate the conversion ratio with a simple formula: average weekly attendance for the year divided by the number of conversions in the same year.

Suppose a church averages three hundred in weekly attendance and sees twenty people come to Christ in a year. In that case, their conversion ratio is 15:1. Take a moment and calculate your church’s conversion ratio and compare it to the following conversion health scale.

20:1 or less: Healthy. Your church is sharing the gospel regularly.

21:1 to 50:1: Somewhat healthy. A core group is sharing the gospel.

51:1 to 80:1: Somewhat unhealthy. A few people are sharing the gospel, but not many.

81:1 or more: Unhealthy. Your church is not sharing the gospel with others.

The ratio helps you understand evangelism effectiveness relative to the size of your church. The metric puts churches of all sizes on the same playing field.

In one study at Church Answers, we found growing churches do not have a significantly better conversion ratio than other churches. Unfortunately, the statistics demonstrate most growing churches are experiencing mainly transfer growth.

In the past, membership was the numerator in the calculation, but too many churches have inflated membership rolls (and some ignore membership altogether). Today, we use average weekly attendance.

Sadly, most churches in North America are unhealthy. The average conversion ratio among churches in the United States is 85:1. Less than four percent of churches meet the criteria for being healthy. There is a dangerous lack of evangelistic activity. It’s time to stir these stagnant waters.

This article is adapted from an excerpt in The Church Revitalization Checklist: A Hopeful and Practical Guide for Leading Your Congregation to a Brighter Tomorrow, published by Tyndale.

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