Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 63

10 Reasons Ministry Pain is Really Tough

Most of us who have done ministry for any length of time know the pain of this work. Sometimes it’s gripping . . . ongoing . . . overwhelming. Here are some reasons why it is especially difficult pain:

1. We start ministry with excitement and joy, never thinking about the potential pain. But, then it happens. It catches us off-guard, and we’re not immediately sure what to do with it. Confusion compounds the pain.

2. No one can adequately prepare us for the pain. Veteran pastors, seminary professors, and good friends can share their experiences, but there’s no way to describe the pain until you’ve felt it. No way.

3. Sometimes it’s good friends who bring the pain. It really hurts when someone you love stabs you in the back. Losing a Christian friend—particularly for unknown or unfounded reasons—hurts.

4. It often comes unexpectedly. I still think about times when I thought our ministry was going quite well, only to be caught off guard by conflict and opposition. Not only does the pain hurt, but it then also feels like you’ve missed something somewhere as a leader.

5. Our families often hurt more than we do. That’s because they sometimes hear more than we do through the grapevine, and they also naturally jump to our defense. Even when we might let go of the pain, our family may still struggle.

6. Some of the reasons/causes for the pain are ludicrous. I’ve often said that we pastors could not make up some of the things we’ve faced in ministry. I stand by that statement—it’s amazing what crazy things some church members will believe (and do).

7. When pain robs us of our joy, we sometimes begin to question our calling . . . or whether we still want to fulfill that calling. That is, the situation hits at the very core of who we are. Pain leads to questioning, confusion, and doubt.

8. After too many episodes of pain, some of us begin to look for the next pain. We’re sure it will happen, and we don’t want to be surprised—so we operate with suspicion of anyone who doesn’t seem to be on board. That’s a terrible way to lead.

9. Sometimes our pain reminds us of times when we were wrongly the cause of someone else’s pain. We want to let it go, but we still carry guilt over yesterday’s actions. The enemy resurrects the situation in our minds, and we give him a stronghold.

10. Many of us choose to carry the pain on our own. We don’t readily share with our spouses, lest they get angry and hurt, too. Nor do we typically talk with other pastors if we don’t want them to see us struggling. Our isolation in the pain only compounds it.

Church leaders, what would you add to this list? And, what do you do to avoid letting yesterday’s pain consume you today?

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12 Things Churches Changed During COVID That They Are Keeping after COVID

For many churches, the quarantine was a time for introspection and evaluation. We often refer to it as “the blank slate.” We know that most churches stopped meeting in person during the quarantine. We also know that churches had to pivot and make several changes.

But the question we sought to answer was: What is something your church changed DURING the pandemic that you will keep AFTER the pandemic? This brief survey was started in our Church Answers’ community by a pastor. I continued the topic on social media.

Though we had many more changes articulated than twelve, these same twelve were common and repeated. They are listed in order of frequency of response. Surprisingly, the first three were related to giving.

1. Digital giving. Clearly, this response was number one. Churches either moved to digital giving for the first time, or they emphasized digital giving more than ever. This pattern will continue for the foreseeable future.

2. No passing of the offering plates. For obvious hygienic reasons, many churches stopped passing the offering plates during worship services as churches began to regather. Most of those churches have decided not to resume the practice.

3. Offering boxes. The offering box became the alternative for giving when the church met in person. The box was typically placed in one or more visible locations as people entered and exited the services. It looks like the boxes are here to stay.

4. The final demise of the meet and greet. This practice was declining prior to the pandemic. With a few exceptions, it looks like it’s going away permanently. No more handshakes and hugs during the worship services. I am not grieving the loss.

5. Streaming of worship services. While a few churches decided not to resume either live streaming or recorded streaming of services, most have decided to keep it. Obviously, the number of viewers in most churches has declined since its pandemic peak. Still, the churches as a whole see its ongoing value.

6. The final demise of Sunday evening services. This practice had declined significantly before the pandemic. With a few exceptions, the Sunday evening service begun in the agrarian era has disappeared completely.

7. Less cluttered calendars. Many churches found that they were more effective with fewer meetings, ministries, and programs. A number of leaders have expressed surprise that they are doing more with less. The cluttered church calendar has become a simple calendar.

8. Digital prayer gatherings. One of the most positive developments of the church during the pandemic was digital prayer gatherings. A number of church leaders told us that they had more people participate than ever before. They have decided to keep it.

9. Digital Bible studies and discipleship. Although groups such as community groups, life groups, or Sunday school classes have largely resumed in-person meetings, many churches still have online groups going. These groups are typically short-term studies designed for deeper discipleship.

10. Greater involvement in social media. Many churches discovered great ways to communicate via social media. In fact, some congregations had no social media presence before the pandemic. For many churches, their social media engagement is greater than ever.

11. More intentional hygienic efforts. When churches began to regather, they offered a number of hand sanitizer stations and took many other hygienic measures. This change will likely be a permanent reality for many congregations.

12. Personnel for media and digital presence. While many of these part-time, volunteer, or full-time staff were hired to set up and maintain streaming services, churches are seeing the value of these positions well beyond streaming services. As a consequence, they are keeping the personnel beyond the pandemic.

Thank you for all of the responses you provided. I would love to hear from more of you. What is something your church changed DURING the pandemic that you will keep AFTER the pandemic?

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7 Practical Ways to Prep for Fall

I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but my gut tells me that this fall is going to be huge for our churches. Families are returning from vacation, people are getting back into routines, and a global pandemic seems to be waning. 

All of that means that church parking lots and pews will be fuller than they were during summer … or maybe anytime in the last year and a half. In normal years at our church, we typically see a 30-35% attendance bump from the end of July to mid-August.

So how can you take advantage of the next few weeks in order to be prepared for the influx of guests? Here are seven ways:

Refresh your volunteer training. 

Go back to the basics with your current vols. Remind them why your team exists. Whether you’re meeting with them in person or sending out text / email updates, spend a few minutes over the next few weekends helping your volunteers get their heads back in the game. [Related post: Need an Inexpensive Option for Team Training?]

Invite new people to serve. 

New guests mean new opportunities for your members to step up their game. Invite all of your current vols to shoulder-tap their friends. If your attendance numbers bump by 1/3 like ours, make it a personal goal to bump your volunteer numbers by the same. [Related post: 20 Ways to Get More Volunteers]

Review your systems. 

Sure, you remember the last time when a lot of people showed up and you had to seat them in the lobby or park them at the business down the street. But now, how will you prepare based on what you know? Now is the time to pull out the playbook and talk to your team about what will happen when (not if) additional space is required. (And please, let’s not call it overflow. That’s what toilets do.) [Related post: 10 Ways to Make Your Seating Team More Effective]

Practice your language.

How will you greet your guests when they arrive? Sure, you may cover this with your volunteers … but what about the people on stage? How will your worship leader encourage people to scoot in once worship has already started? How will your lead pastor greet the throngs, acknowledge the bump, and invite them back? How will your announcement guy give practical next steps? [Related post: Six Times to Talk to Your Guests]

Check your supplies. 

Do you have enough first time guest gifts? Worship guides? Information cards? Communion cups? Now is the time to order them. [Related post: First Time Guest Bags: An Intro]

Clean it up.

Don’t neglect your facility or your parking lot. Take a minute to walk around this week and spot what needs to be fixed or freshened up: remove those VBS posters; weed that flower bed; windex that lobby door. [Related post: Pick Up Your Junk]

Pray. 

This isn’t the last resort, but the first. If we believe for a moment that the guest experience rises and falls on a clean facility and well-trained volunteers, we deceive ourselves. No, we must pray for the Holy Spirit to compel people to come, to open their eyes to the gospel, and to woo them into a relationship with Jesus. [Related post: Is Your Guest Service Team in a State of Desperation?]

 A modified version of this post originally appeared on dfranks.com.

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Why Am I Struggling to Implement Vision in My Church? Three Common Snags Holding Pastors Back

Vision without strategy is merely a dream. Several variations of the preceding phrase are attributed to any number of writers and thinkers. It’s an important thought. Strategy is the pathway to vision. Many pastors have a vision for their churches, but they don’t know how to create a pathway to accomplish their goals.

Strategy is how ideas get implemented. I believe it’s easier to formulate a vision than it is to think strategically. Many pastors have an idea of where they want to go, but they struggle with how to get moving. While much attention is given to vision, I believe a lack of strategy is one of the main reasons why churches are stuck.

What are some common snags to implementing vision? And how can a pastor think more strategically to get the church moving?

1. The first snag is not understanding the scope and schedule of implementing an idea. Scope involves knowing the who, what, where, when, and how of the work involved. What’s missing in this list? The why. Ironically, most leaders know why they want to accomplish an idea, but the snag becomes the rest of the list. It’s one thing to know why you want something done. Strategy determines who will do what, when they will do it, and how they will do it. In addition to scope, the schedule of the strategy is equally important. Unreasonable timelines are strategy killers.

2. The second snag is not considering the capacity of the people who are at ground level in the ministry responsible for implementing the vision. A while back, I encountered a pastor who asked his support staff to laminate hundreds of cards for a sermon illustration. It was Friday morning when the idea hit him. The team spent an entire weekend working because the pastor struggled to think ahead. Unfortunately, these kinds of requests were a regular occurrence in this church. Even your best people have a limited capacity. Thinking strategically requires a leader to consider workload along with timing.

3. The third snag occurs when pastors do not communicate consistently about implementation. Progress stops when communication stops. Many pastors are good about communicating upfront about where the church is going. What is often missing is consistent updates throughout the implementation of a strategy. These ongoing progress reports are arguably more important than selling the vision upfront. For instance, capital campaigns can sputter when updates are infrequent. People get excited the first few weeks, but the excitement wanes when nobody knows how things are going.

Vision is important, but it’s overrated. Thinking strategically is grossly underrated in the church leadership world. The lack of a clear strategy is what often snags pastors and holds them back. An average vision with a stellar strategy will accomplish far more than a superior vision with no strategy.

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The Challenges Churches Face Leasing Facilities in a Post-COVID World

We are only beginning to assess and realize the changes and challenges COVID brought to churches. One of those challenges emerged during the pandemic. Churches that leased facilities were not able to return when the restrictions of the pandemic lifted. Some of them lost their leases altogether.

Let’s look at some of these issues and challenges. They are indeed issues we might never have anticipated if there had not been a pandemic.

Some facilities are no longer open to leasing to churches. In most cases, this posture is not an anti-Christian stance. Instead, the owners of these buildings are concerned about keeping the facilities as safe and clean as possible. It can be difficult when an outside group is in the building at least once a week. We have seen several schools and other government organizations decide to stop the weekly leasing of their building to any group, churches included.New churches have fewer options. Many new churches start in schools, but many schools are no longer leasing to outside groups. Established churches typically own their buildings. But most new churches do not have the financial means to purchase or build a facility. They see fewer options for places to meet.Existing churches must open their facilities to other churches. Our church buildings have a terrible occupancy rate. We are often poor stewards of these incredible resources God has given us. We must be open to welcoming other congregations to use our buildings. They may not have the “prime time” of Sunday morning, but most of them would welcome other times during the week. I look forward to the day when three or more churches are meeting in one building.We must do everything we can to keep church facilities as church facilities. It grieves me to hear of a church closing its doors without pursuing the possibility of deeding the property to another church. We call these new churches “church replants” or “church adoptions.”The neighborhood church is experiencing a renewal and revival. We must work together to keep these churches both open and thriving. I have seen many neighborhood churches on the cusp of closure welcome another church to take over their facilities. Not only is a church building saved for congregational use, but a gospel witness also remains in the neighborhood. Often that gospel witness is magnified.

It has become cliché to say, “The church is not the building; the people are.” Often, that statement is made in such a way as to suggest that church buildings are inherently bad. Churches must have a place to gather, whether it’s in a home, under a tree, or in a traditional church building. The gathered church is not only a manifestation of church life; it is a mandate of church life.

Church buildings are becoming scarce. They will become scarcer in the days ahead. Indeed, many churches that have been dependent on leased facilities are without a facility right now. Others will meet that same reality in the months ahead.

The situation is a challenge, but it is not a lost cause. We can do things differently with our buildings. We can become better stewards of our buildings. And we can open our doors to other churches using our buildings.

If these developments unfold, we will see the evil of the pandemic become something God has used for good.

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How to Get Your Pastor Active on Social Media

“Do I have to do this?” That is the question that I get from a lot of pastors when it comes to social media. It’s not that they want to get out of doing work or that they’re anti-social, it’s just that social media seems like one more thing on their to-do list with little to no return on their investment.

I think my pastor probably felt the same way at some point. Back in 2008, I reserved his Twitter username (@mikeglenn) on a hunch that he might need it at some point. At first, I don’t think he understood the importance of Twitter, however, after a little coaxing, he really took off. 

There are a lot of you out there right now trying to get your pastor on social media. The hardest part is trying to figure out where to start and begin the conversation. I’ve been there and I know how difficult it can be. I’ve had some pretty good successes and plenty of failures.

I’ve also developed a seven-step process to help you get your pastor to try social media. Now, these steps can be customized to your situation and they don’t have to be followed in a certain order. What these steps should do is give you a roadmap to help you navigate conversations, develop trust and eventually help your pastor to try social media. Ready to give it a go? Here they are:

Step 1: Get a Clear Picture of Reality

Let’s first get this out of the way. Getting your pastor on social media might not be an easy task. You need to make sure that when you start the conversation, that you go in with a clear picture of reality.

One way to get a clear picture of reality is to take inventory of what your pastor currently thinks about social media. When you have a good sense of their perception of social media, you can then shape the rest of the process to help mitigate fears or clear up misconceptions. Here’s a list of questions you should ask your pastor to help you get a clear picture:

What does success look like for you on social media?What are your biggest fears about social media?What are your initial impressions of social media?What aspects of social media seem to make sense to you? What parts do not?

Step 2: Numbers or Story?

This next step is going to depend on the personality of your pastor. If they’re someone who is driven by numbers, then you’re going to need to show them metrics that will help them understand why social media is important. If they’re driven by emotion or stories, then you’ll need to provide real-life examples from your church or other churches that demonstrate the power of social media.

If you want to use both stories and metrics, I find that you should start with stories first, then move to metrics. Stories do a better job capturing the imagination and then metrics can help cement the case.

Step 3: Get Outside Support

Don’t feel like you’re in this alone. If you have other staff or members who are as passionate about this as you are, bring them along. While you don’t want to overwhelm your pastor, you do want your pastor to get a sense that this isn’t just about you.

One effective method is to see if anyone in your pastor’s family uses social media. Sometimes, having a family member as an advocate can help make the case in the off hours (i.e. family dinner) and they can even help provide some tutoring as well.

Step 4: Show How Social Media Supports the Church’s Goals and Objectives

Most pastors I know are driven by goals or objectives. Hopefully, these goals or objectives are spelled out for your church. If so, you need to clearly show how social media can support and help accomplish those goals and objectives.

For example, one of our church’s objectives for the last five years has been “Make our church feel small.” No matter how big we get, we want people to feel like they’ve known and are a part of our family. Social media helps support this goal by us tagging members in Facebook photos, lifting up volunteers on Instagram, and using #throwbackthursday to highlight old church photos on Instagram.

Step 5: Ask for Small Changes

My personality is one where I like radical change. I’m not one to make small changes. However, when you’re asking your pastor to engage on social media you can’t go for radical change. Instead, you need to help ease them into the process.

For some pastors, just the sight of the Twitter stream will overwhelm them. So take the time to help them focus on one social network. Yes, some pastors will be tempted to join Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all at once. However, a slower approach will ensure that they don’t get overwhelmed too quickly.

Step 6: Get Small Wins

Once you have them on a social network, find ways to help them get small wins. This could be conducting a live Q&A on Facebook (just have people ask questions in the comments section of a post and let your pastor respond) or setting manageable goals to have a certain amount of Twitter followers by a certain date.

Step 7: Let Them Know They’re It’s Okay to Say No

Wait, I thought you were helping me convince my pastor to try social media, not give them a way out. While that is true, you need to let your pastor know that this is something that should try when they’re ready.

If you push your pastor too fast and they have a bad experience, then you decrease your chance of them ever coming back and trying it again. However, if you let them set the timetable, you’re giving them a sense of ownership in the process. This over time will give you more credibility with your pastor.

Remember, this process can’t happen overnight. Think of it as an ongoing conversation that will require some give and take. Sometimes you’ll get a win with your pastor and sometimes you might have to take a step back and try something else. The key thing is to not give up and instead walk alongside your pastor until they’re ready.

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An “Operating System” for Making Disciples

One Friday morning, the Lead Pastor of a young, thriving church sits at Chick-fil-a with his men’s group. As he looks around the table, he notices two things: 1) only half the guys in his group are present, and 2) of the ones there, only half came prepared. And this is the Lead Pastor’s group! His conclusion: “If this is our primary discipleship process, we’re in trouble.”

It’s a common sentiment I hear from church leaders. What they’re doing is working. They’re growing … more people, more events, more money, more groups … but they struggle where many churches struggle … helping their people become all-in leaders and disciple-makers, not just disciples.

What these churches need isn’t a whole new model when it comes to discipleship and community, but they might need an updated operating system.

Think about it this way: every year, Apple comes out with a new version of the iPhone and a new operating system. Most Apple users don’t get a brand-new phone every year, but they do update their current phone to the new operating system. Why? Because it improves the performance of their phone and all their apps.

Radical Mentoring is an operating system for making disciples. 

Ok, great, but what does that mean? What does this new operating system “do?” What new features and improvements will it bring to my church? Here are four ways small group mentoring can “upgrade” your current discipleship process:

1. Safe Space for Vulnerability. Having everyone share their full, no-holding-back faith story, starting with the mentor, creates a safe space for vulnerability and accountability that puts relationship ahead of content. This empowers the group to go further, faster and leads to conversations that matter. 

2. Authentic Community. By focusing on stories, mentoring groups create an environment for people to be real, encourage each other, and drive relationships deep. Of the 450+ people surveyed after their mentoring season, 95% said they experienced authentic community in their group, and 88% described their group’s relationships as “very deep” or “deep.” 

3. More Capable Leaders. Every church needs more leaders, and they need the leaders they have to grow. Spending intentional time covering important topics under the guidance of a mentor will increase anyone’s leadership capacity. And it allows churches to identify people who never felt able or qualified to lead, give them assurance that they can, and mobilize them into service.

4. Increased Intentionality. When our involvement is optional, when we can go or not go, take it or leave it, then our hearts won’t be in it. In a mentoring group, mentees have to apply and then sign a covenant, saying they’ll show up on time, every time, having read a book and completed their homework assignments. This level of intentionality leads to growth and change and will spill over into other aspects of a mentee’s life.

Small group mentoring works best as an extension of your current discipleship model. The people who graduate from a mentoring group have spent nine to twelve months learning from an older, wiser mentor and developing deep, authentic relationships with a group of people. They not only become better spouses, parents, friends, and Jesus-followers, they go back into their small groups, Bible studies, and church-wide events and improve the quality of these activities, bringing the authenticity and intentionality they learned during their mentoring season.

The Lead Pastor I mentioned at the top? Small group mentoring has become the foundation of their church’s discipleship process. Here’s how they look at it now…

101: Events – periodic events (i.e., men’s hike, women’s gathering, etc.) aimed to inspire people and encourage them to take a next step and serve or get into a group.

201: LifeGroups – weekly small groups aimed to help people “learn about God, pray, eat, laugh, and share life” with others in their church community

301: Mentoring Groups – high commitment groups that meet for 3 hours, once a month, for 9 months, aimed to “yield a deeper walk with God and a biblical perspective on many aspects of life” under the guidance of older, wiser co-mentors.

That same pastor had this to say about how it’s worked, “Radical Mentoring is the best thing we have done because it is helping us make more mature followers of Christ…it gives people tools to be lifelong disciple-makers.”

We’ve seen this work at churches of all shapes and sizes, and we’d love to help you explore how small group mentoring can enhance your church’s discipleship system. And the best part, our entire resource library is available to you for free. When you go here to get access, you’ll receive everything you need to launch Radical Mentoring groups for men or Known Collective groups for women, including our coaching and guidance. Learn more here.

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A Few Surprising Perspectives about Your Unchurched Neighbors

They are your neighbors. When you pull out of your driveway, you wave at them as they water their lawn. Your kids attend the same school; they play touch football in your yard. You may have even picked up their mail while they were on vacation. But have you ever invited them to your church?

We are all guilty on some level of not being obedient to the imperative of Acts 1:8, sharing the gospel message with all who will listen. And many of us have not taken the step of inviting our neighbors to church. Some of us may not even know our neighbors.

We get home, pull the car in the garage, and hurry inside. In the morning, the process begins anew. If we know our neighbors, it is many times only on a superficial level.

Many of your neighbors are unchurched. Several of them may not know Christ. Who are they, and what are their perceptions? Our research team asked this question and found several things you must know about the unchurched.

Receptivity. Surprisingly, many people who are not currently attending a church are receptive to going. The reason they do not hear is that they have yet to be invited. If invited and accompanied, 82% of the unchurched are open to attending church with a friend or acquaintance.

Opportunity. One of the most saddening aspects of our research revealed that most of the unchurched have never had the gospel message presented to them! Very few of those outside of the church have ever had anyone, much less a neighbor, share their faith with them.

Positivity. While many of us may fall into the trap of believing that those who do not attend a church have a negative perception, the opposite is true. Most of the unchurched believe pastors and churches are beneficial to the public. Such positive perceptions should be an encouragement for the local church to reach out to their communities.

Courtesy. We all have a desire to be treated with courtesy. The unchurched segment of the population is no exception. While they are open to invitations and have a positive view of the church, they would rather be notified before someone showed up at their house. In other words, the best way to invite them into church is perhaps to invite them first into your home. Having them over for a meal and truly making the effort to get to know them is a good way to open them up for an invitation to church.

Sincerity. The majority of the unchurched would like to develop a real and sincere relationship with a Christian. Our neighbors who do not attend a church value relationships that go beyond a superficial wave and hello when we pass by them on walks through the neighborhood.

Spirituality. Most of the unchurched that have children are more concerned about the spiritual welfare of their children than themselves. The old adage “get the children in church, and you’ll get the parents there too” rings very true.

Honesty. One of the more surprising elements of our research involved who the unchurched wanted to talk to about spiritual matters. In fact, most of the unchurched would rather speak with a layperson than a minister about spiritual matters. The excuse that you lack theological training is simply not enough to pawn off your responsibility to share your faith. The unchurched want to hear about your honest spiritual struggles and victories.

Most of your neighbors who are not part of a local church are receptive to an invitation and have a positive view of the church. More importantly, the opportunity is there for gospel work. Be obedient to the calling of the Great Commission, and God will work great things in the church.

 

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9 Dangers of an Isolated Ministry

I’ve been there—serving as a pastor seemingly in the middle of nowhere, with no staff to support me. Isolation was a practical reality. I’ve also served as a pastor in a suburban church with staff—yet I sometimes isolated myself there, too, by choice. I was there physically, but I wasn’t always there emotionally and spiritually. Here are some dangers of an isolated ministry: 

1. We have no accountability built into the system. We answer to no one, which means we can lead as we wish without input. Sometimes, nobody even knows what we do during the day—which can breed laziness and misfocus.

2. No one’s asking us hard questions about our own walk with the Lord. Even we who lead need others who help us test our hearts. We are all too susceptible to misread our own soul to try to do this work on our own.

3. We have few others to share the burdens of ministry. Isolation means we carry the weight by ourselves, and that’s risky. The weight can simply become too much for one person. In fact, I developed ulcers during the first year of my ministry because I didn’t know how to handle the stress.

4. When we succeed, it’s easy to take all the glory for ourselves. Sure, we might praise the Lord publicly, but we know how important we were in the process. After all, we did all the work.

5. When we fail in ministry, we have no one to encourage us and pick us up. Failure will happen, and the time will come when we need other believers to support us. They’re tough to find, though, when we’ve chosen to be isolated leaders.

6. Eventually, isolation is just lonely. I’m highly introverted, but even I need people in my life. I do need time alone, but too much time alone misses the point of what it means to do ministry. Loneliness can captivate all of us.

7. Isolation most often leads to doing no evangelism and discipleship. How can anyone be sharing the gospel regularly and investing in others passionately when they’re on their own most of the time? You cannot do the Great Commission without relationships at some level.

8. Isolation can devolve into depression and self-pity. The other way around is true, too, but either way is not good. The more we find ourselves in isolation, the harder it is to pull ourselves up when ministry is hard.

9. We miss the fact that God never designed us to live in isolation. Indeed, He created us in such a way that it was not good for us to be alone. He made us needing others—which means our isolation is sometimes only sin.

What about you? Do you find yourself in isolation simply because of your current ministry context? Or, are you isolated because you’ve chosen to be so? In either case, let us know how the Church Answers family can pray for you today!

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Top Ten Best-Selling Bible Translations Compared to Ten Years Ago (2021 Update)

If there is a single word that can capture the sales of Bible translations, it is “stability.” The most recent data I have is from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association as of June 2021. The numbers in the parentheses represent the rankings in 2011. Obviously, some of these Bibles are paraphrases rather than translations.

Rankings as of June 2021 (numbers in parentheses are 2011 rankings).

New International Version (NIV) (1)King James Version (KJV) (2)New Living Translation (NLT) (4)English Standard Version (ESV) (5)New King James Version (NKJV) (3)Christian Standard Bible (CSB) (6)Reina Valera (RV) (not ranked)New International Reader’s Version (NIrV) (9)The Message (Message) (8)Nueva Version International (NVI)(not ranked)

 Observations and Notes:

Two Spanish Bibles are now in the top ten. Neither was ranked ten years ago.The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is no longer in the top ten. In 2011 it was ranked 7; in 2020 it was ranked 10.The TNIV was discontinued in 2011. It was ranked 10 that year.Technically the CSB was the HCSB (Lifeway) in 2011.The biggest drop was the NASB, from 7 in 2011 to out of the top ten in 2021. The second biggest drop was the NKJV, from 3 to 5.The biggest gain was the RV, from unranked to 7. The other translations that gained in the rankings were the NLT, the ESV, the NIrV, and the NVI.

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