Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 68

9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult

I’ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I’ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases:

1. When nobody’s praying about the process. I’m convinced that every consulting team and every church undergoing consultation must be covered in prayer in the process. We’re dealing with God’s church, and to go through a consultation without seeking the wisdom and presence of God is to operate too much in our own power.

2. When the lead pastor isn’t really on board with the consult. I’ve seen this happen particularly when another leadership group in the church almost requires the pastor to accept the consult—a situation that already reveals problems in the church.

3. When the leadership fails to accept the depth of the problems. Typically, the leaders recognize some problems, but sometimes they don’t understand just how deeply the issues have affected the church. When we point them out, these leaders tend to become defensive.

4. When leaders don’t fully explain to the church the purpose and plan for the consultation. I’ve interviewed laypersons who began the conversation with, “Who are you, and why are you here? They asked us to be available for an interview, but they didn’t tell us why.” An uninformed church will also be an uninvolved church in the consult.

5. When the church keeps no records of attendance, additions, etc. We can learn a lot about a church by looking at things like growth trends, assimilation patterns, and giving trajectories. It’s almost impossible to do, however, when the church has been unconcerned about numbers.

6. When the church is seemingly unaware of, and unconcerned about, the community around them. If the church assumes the consultant’s role is only to deal with internal issues—and they don’t even ask questions about the community they need to reach—it takes long-term effort to turn their attention outward.

7. When the church is comfortable with transfer growth. That is, they don’t care about how their church grows; they just want to see increased numbers. They’re pleased if  they grow at all, even if it’s at the expense of other congregations in the community.

8. When the church has other previous reports sitting on a shelf. They’ve been through this process before, ignored the suggestions then, and likely assume they’ll do the same this time. This kind of situation is most frustrating to a consultant.

9. When the church refuses to ask for help—which means they don’t even consider a consultation in the first place. No matter who we are or what success we’ve had as church leaders, we can use outside eyes on our work at times. When we’re unwilling to admit that need, we lose out on the benefit of learning from other brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Church Answers consulting team, on the other hand, wants to make a difference in local churches. We want to walk alongside struggling pastors and churches to help them walk well into the future. That’s one reason I’m glad we now offer virtual consulting that any church can use. I encourage you to check it out!

 

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What Megachurches, Neighborhood Churches, and the Multi-Site Movement Are Telling Us

We often think of the three groups of churches as distinct categories. Megachurches are those congregations with an average worship attendance of 2,000 or more. Neighborhood churches are located in and serving a specific and, often, smaller demographic area. Multi-site churches have more than one location or venue.

Though there is some obvious overlap between the three types of churches, we don’t really think of them as connected by a singular and major driving force. But they are. Let’s look at each of them first.

Megachurches

Though more people have migrated to megachurches, particularly in North America, from smaller churches, the movement is really not growing. The number of megachurches has not grown over the past several years. They may have a larger share of the population of church attendees, but that movement may slow or even reverse in the next few years.

Megachurches are largely a Baby Boomer phenomenon. My generation (born 1946 to 1964) was the generation of big churches, big stadiums, and big malls. The latter, big malls, is definitely declining. The other two are not growing as fast and may soon begin to decline.

Neighborhood Churches

It has been a quiet growth movement led by Gen X and Millennial pastors, but it is a movement worth watching. Neighborhood churches are those congregations serving a specific demographic area. They can be found in both suburban and urban neighborhoods, smaller towns, and rural areas.

 While pastors and other leaders younger than Baby Boomers have been attracted and led to these churches, their age-group peers are now beginning to follow them. The pandemic accelerated the move to these demographic areas. Churches that are willing and ready to receive this younger generation have a great opportunity before them.

Multi-Site Churches

The multi-site church movement shows no sign of slowing. It began with megachurches. In fact, if you look at the largest churches in North America, you will rarely see one of those congregations with only one site.

Over the past decade or so, megachurches have grown horizontally, not vertically. In other words, they grew with new sites rather than higher attendance at one site. Most megachurches would be declining now if they had not gone to multi-site.

The multi-site movement has spread to smaller churches in recent years. In fact, we may see a micro-church movement become another expression of the multi-site movement.

The Common Thread

The common thread in all of these movements is that congregations are becoming more local. Fewer people desire to drive a long distance to attend a worship service. To state it more positively, people want to attend a house of worship that represents the neighborhood or locale where they live.

It has been amazing to see how many church leaders are striving to learn more about their immediate local community. Our fastest-growing resource at Church Answers is Know Your Community, a 35-page report that gives rich details of each church’s community (see https://churchanswers.com/solutions/tools/kyc/know-your-community). The most common description we get from church leaders to define their communities is “drive time.” How long do typical attendees drive to get to a respective house of worship? It is not unusual to see requests come to us for a report based on a 10 to 12 minute drive time.

The attractional church is yielding to the local church. This one phenomenon explains what is taking place in the three categories of churches described in this article.

Even more importantly, this move toward local ministry is shaping congregational life and ministry around the world. It behooves all church leaders and members to get to know your community, serve your community, and love your community.

It is a movement we should watch.

It really is a movement we should embrace.

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7 Essential Steps for Creating a Social Media Campaign

If you have ever sat in a planning meeting for a ministry event, you’ve probably heard someone say, “We need to promote this on social media.” This usually means that you’re expected to craft a few Facebook posts or Instagram stories, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. Then the event happens, your social media had little effect, and you begin to doubt the power of social media.

The problem of course wasn’t your event or even your social media content. The problem was you didn’t think through an actual social media campaign that would have helped you create goals, get to know your audience, and create realistic measurements.

In this post, I’ll walk you through seven essential steps to creating a social media campaign. You obviously will want to tweak them to meet your situation, but these steps should help you create an effective social media campaign.

1. Create a Set of Goals

Your campaign starts with a goal or set of goals. Your goals essentially state what you want to accomplish. Goals help define what you’re actually trying to get done. At the end of the social media campaign, if you’ve accomplished your goals, then you’ll be able to show your results.

In order to create goals, you need to learn how to create them in a way that’s effective. Here’s an easy way to create effective goals using the S.M.A.R.T. methodology. Using this methodology, you should create goals that are:

Specific – Goals can’t be generic. If you created a goal that said “We want more social media interaction.”, then you’ve left yourself open to a whole set of questions about which social network, how you define interaction and what actually constitutes “more”? The more specific the goal, the more likely it will be that you understand your target.

Measurable – If you can’t measure your goal, then you’ll never know if you accomplished it. Goals require some sort of wording that clearly demonstrates whether or not this goal has been met. If you can’t measure it, then you won’t know if you’ve met the mark.

Attainable – Some of us are start-eyed dreamers who love to create lofty goals. Trust me, we need those people. However, we also create goals that can actually be met. If we don’t do that, then we can waste precious time and effort striving towards something that we know deep down, we’ll never accomplish.

Realistic – While the goal needs to be attainable, it also needs to have a bit of realism to it. There needs to be a sense that this goal will stretch you and your team. You need to be able to accomplish this goal, but you also need it to be a goal that will really push your team to get better in order to reach it.

Time-Driven – Goals need to have a due date. Without a due date, a goal can last forever. Goals need to be driven by time. When you assign a goal a due date, you communicate the urgency behind the goal. A time-driven goal forces everyone to kick it into high gear to meet the deadline.

Your social media campaign needs to have a clear S.M.A.R.T. goal. For example, your goal should look like this:

By the end of October 2021, we will obtain 400 new likes on our church Facebook page.

The goal is specific and measurable because we know we’re referring to our Facebook page and we’ve known exactly how to determine if we’ve met the goal (400 new likes). It’s time-driven because we know that we have until then of October 2021 to meet the goal. Is it being attainable and measurable? Well, that depends on your church (however, I think your church can do it).

2. Establish a Unique Value Proposition

Every minister thinks their ministry is special. I’m not being condescending when I say this. I understand that if you’re pursuing your passion then you’ll be inclined to believe that you’re on “a mission from God” (Blues Brothers, anyone?).

However, your audience might not see it that way. It’s not that they don’t care about your specific ministry or call to action. It’s that they don’t understand how it’s any different than the other hundred messages that are flooding their email inbox or Facebook news feed.

When you’re creating a social media campaign, you need to determine what is unique about this campaign. Here are some questions to think through:

What value are you providing the audience?What’s in it for the audience?How is this different from the other ministries in the church?How is this ministry tailored to their individual needs?Why is now the time to join this ministry?

If you can clearly communicate what the ministry’s unique value proposition is, then you’ll have a much easier time crafting ads on Facebook and Twitter that are unique and stand out to your audience.

3. Determine Your Audience

If you’re running a social media campaign for your church and you ask who the target audience is and you hear the answer “Everyone!” then you have a problem. There are few if any campaigns that involve the entire church.

When you’re building a social media campaign, you need to determine who it is that we’re targeting. The more specific you are, the better chance you have of reaching that audience. Why? Well first, you can tailor ads and language that you know will speak to that audience. Second, you can go to the right social media channels where that audience is.

No one wants to leave out a group when promoting in the church and that makes sense on the surface. Of course, you don’t want to exclude people, that’s the nature of a church. However, marketing requires that you exclude people in order to better reach your target audience.

Once you have a target audience in mind, it’s helpful if you personalize that target audience. So if you are marketing to 20-year-old moms, then think about the 20-year-old moms that you know who go to your church. Where do they shop? What do they read? If your friends with someone in the target audience, ask questions to get a better sense of who you’re targeting. The more you can put a face on your audience, the more likely you are to reach them.

4. Select Your Channels

Once you’ve determined your audience, you need to begin to think about the social media and digital channels you want to target. Now you might be inclined to promote everything on all your social media channels. I understand that. In some ways, that’s the easiest thing to do.

However, you might be better off just choosing one or two channels that you know your target audience highly favors. For example, if I’m targeting senior adults in my church, then I’m going to solely focus on Facebook since that’s where the majority of them are.

By focusing solely on Facebook, I don’t have to waste time crafting content that’s unique for my other channels (i.e. Instagram). Instead, I can focus on getting the most out of Facebook in terms of researching the best times to post, different types of media (i.e. images, video), and creating targeted ads.

I’m not saying that there won’t be campaigns in which you wouldn’t want to focus on all your channels. However, when you try to be everywhere with a social media campaign, you can’t always give every channel the same amount of attention that they each deserve.

5. Determine Your Strategy

Once you’ve determined your social media channels that you’ll use for the campaign, you need to figure out what strategy you’ll want to use on that channel to meet your goal. I personally think this funniest part of the process. This is where you can brainstorm and ask the “what if” questions. This is the time in which you should allow yourself to think of fun, creative ideas that will help you reach your goals.

So if you’re on Facebook, you might want to try dark posts. If you’re on Instagram, you might want to try a caption contest. Try to list out any strategy that you might think will work for your social media channels.

Here’s a word of caution. Don’t just look at what’s worked in the past and replicate it. While that’s probably the easiest thing to do, it often can lead to your social media becoming predictable for your audience. If you want to keep your audience engaged, then you need to surprise and delight them.

6. Define Your Next Actions

Plans are wonderful, but if you don’t know what the next actionable step is then it’s never going to get it done. You need to define the next actions for every part of your campaign. The next actions are the next physical thing you or someone else needs to do to make the campaign happen.

Next actions can be as simple as making a phone call or sending an email. However simple they may seem, they need to be defined and assigned to someone. If there’s a next action that’s not defined and assigned to someone with a definitive deadline, then it won’t happen.

We keep our next actions and tasks in a system called ClickUp. This is where we assign tasks and deadlines to make sure that everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing and when it’s supposed to be done.

Now if you run social media by yourself, you still need to do this. There are plenty of projects that I work on a solo that still require me to define my next actions and place deadlines on myself. This may seem tedious, but by capturing these next actions for our projects, I can quickly see if I’m in over my head or if I need to bring in outside help.

7. Hold a Postmortem

This is often the most overlooked part of the social media campaign since it happens after the campaign. This is where we take a hard look at what happened, ask why it happened, and determine how we can improve the process for the next go around. We call this the postmortem.

The postmortem is a meeting where everyone involved in the social media campaign sits and talks through the campaign from conception to execution. The key to making this meeting work is to have open and honest dialogue. Of course, that’s not always easy.

A while back when I was running a creative team and we needed to be critical of each other’s work, we had a saying. It was “Can I tell you if your baby is ugly?” The point being, that the project was probably somebody’s baby and no one likes to hear that their baby is ugly. So if you can answer yes to the question, then we know that we can have an honest conversation.

Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes during a postmortem. The sooner you can admit a mistake, the sooner you can begin to figure out how to improve it for the next venture. Remember, the postmortem is not a time to place blame, but instead find solutions to ensure success for the next social media campaign.

One Last Step…

Okay, maybe there are eight steps. One of the things I do, after we have a postmortem, is catalog everything for future reference. This includes emails, documents or any other items of significance that we’ll need for when doing the event again. Most of these items usually end up in Evernote.

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Church Leaders, Let’s Talk About and Do More Intentional Evangelism

I sat in an empty conference room going through church files. One box contained hundreds of leads from a long-gone Tuesday night outreach program. I called in a couple of deacons.

“What should we do with these?” It may be the dumbest ministry question I’ve ever asked.

“I don’t know. We haven’t done this program in years.” 

Rather than creating a plan to follow up with some of them, the files went back in the box. The box went back on the storage shelf. God transitioned me from that church many years ago. I wonder if the box is still on the shelf.

One of the biggest problems in churches is a lack of evangelism. I understand we use different words for the action of sharing the gospel. If someone is consistently proclaiming the good news but does not use the word evangelism, then I don’t want to get in the way with an argument about the particulars of the Greek term, euangelion. However, I can’t help but notice the decline of intentional evangelism in churches. We pastors say “evangelism” less, and at the same time our churches are doing less evangelistic work.

The vast majority of churches are not effective evangelistically. This truth is hard because of what God desires of His church. The church is not a destination for crowds but rather a vehicle to take gospel-sharing people to the ends of the earth. Evangelism is falling off the radar for many churches.

The solution is simple: Church leaders must show the way by being more intentional about evangelism and talking about these efforts. We need to say and do intentional evangelism.

Intentional evangelism is not obnoxious. Yelling at people on the street corner or on social media (same thing) is rarely the best approach. The idea behind euangelion is good news. The call to repentance should not come wrapped in insults.

Intentional evangelism is not easy. Like most good disciplines, intentional evangelism requires work. You have to work to get in front of people. You have to work to build their trust. You have to work to share Jesus with them. 

Intentional evangelism is not superficial. Dropping a gospel tract in lieu of a restaurant tip is counter-productive and lazy, if not mean. These approaches are like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes. Be open. Be honest. Be truthful. Be conversational.

Intentional evangelism requires listening. You must listen to two parties: The Holy Spirit and the lost person. Listen to the lost person to empathize and understand how to share. Listen to the Holy Spirit to prioritize when to share.

Intentional evangelism requires sincerity. Lost people are not projects. They are not part of the spiritual discipline checklist. If you are using evangelism to feel better about yourself, then it’s likely you are being disingenuous about the gospel message. Being disingenuous might be better than being disobedient, but it’s still not the goal.

Intentional evangelism requires sacrifice. Sacrifice always hurts. Sacrifice always changes you. God’s best is typically difficult but rewarding. Intentional evangelism makes us decrease while God increases.

The most evil thing a person can do is intentionally prevent another from hearing God’s truth. Be good. Be an ambassador of good news. Share Jesus. 

Church Answers has some great options to get your church moving. Check out Invite Your One, Pray and Go, and the Outreach Bundle

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Five Ways to Make an Aging Congregation Younger

It is one of the top three requests for help we get at Church Answers: “Our church membership continues to get older. What do we do?” 

The members and leadership see the handwriting on the wall. One church leader with whom I spoke just two days ago summarized their challenge. Ten years ago the church’s median age of church members was 42. Today it is 74. One-half of the church members are 74 years old and older.

Many of the younger members left for a variety of reasons. They have not been replaced with similar age members. The congregation is getting older rapidly. The leader with whom I spoke said his church would not be able to sustain itself financially within three or four years.

Is there a solution to this challenge? Based upon some great insights from church leaders, I do indeed see how God is working to move the aging church forward. Here are the five most common responses we have gotten at Church Answers:

1. Don’t default to hiring someone to make the church younger. Some aging churches have the financial ability to add staff. And some of those churches think the solution is hiring a family minister, a youth minister, a children’s minister, or some combination of the three. It never works. It is a clear indicator the laity have given up doing the work of ministry and have resorted to “hired hands.” It’s ineffective. Even more, it’s unbiblical.

2. Look to the strengths and the gifts of the older congregants. One pastor with whom I spoke said he gathered together about 25 of the older adults in his church. He asked a simple question: What abilities and gifts do you have to connect with younger people? He was amazed at the results and the energy in the room. That one meeting became a launching point for many efforts by these older adults to reach beyond the walls of the church.

3. Find places where older adults can connect naturally with younger people. One senior adult became involved in an ESL (English as a Second Language) ministry. Another older adult became a math tutor. One senior adult in the church owned three local fast-food restaurants. He became highly intentional about connecting with the teenagers and young adults he hired.

4. Pray for opportunities to reach younger people and families. Another pastor shared his church’s initial success at getting younger. They simply prayed for opportunities to connect with younger people. As they prayed, the opportunities came. As they prayed their eyes opened to those opportunities.

5. Get outside eyes to make your church aware of opportunities. One of the elements I value most in church consultation is the fresh set of eyes it offers. Sometimes, a new perspective can be paradigmatic in moving the church toward reaching more young people. Let us know if we can help by contacting us at info@churchanswers.com.

Hear me clearly. An older church is not an inferior church. Older Christians have much to offer in both wisdom and experience. But if a church’s membership ages rapidly, the congregation is indeed in danger of losing its effectiveness, and potentially seeing its doors close.

Can an older congregation become younger? Absolutely.

And it’s an incredible story of God’s grace and power when we see it take place.

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Why Visions Fail

In my interactions with pastors and churches over the past few months, discussions of re-creating or reviving vision within their ministry has been a frequent topic.  Most understand that we are entering a new season of ministry as we emerge from the global pandemic. Some are discovering that they will have to ignite a fire and re-energize the motivations of some congregants for the church’s mission. Our discussions center on why visions fail as leaders craft and attempt to cast a compelling vision to propel the church forward. Here are four take-ways from those discussions:  

1. Confusing vision with goals and strategy plans. Goals are markers and signposts toward the destination. Strategy plans are the how-tos that help us accomplish vision, but they are deficient in giving us the visual images and pictures that will stir the heart and create passion to do the work.

2. There is no sense of urgency to move forward and people are content with maintaining the status quo. There is no pressure or problem that forces transformation.  Usually, loss of members or money are adequate motivators. However, a praying church will be in tune to God’s Spirit and benefit from the fresh leading of the Lord.

3. The leadership lacks the means to communicate vision or develop a structure to accomplish it. Leaders have to inspire others to get on board and then have the ability to build a transportation system to take the ministry train to its destination. Some leaders are great at erecting a façade like on a movie set, but it is only propped up by planks and nails to create an illusion with no true substance. 

4. The vision is either too insignificant for people to give their time, talent, and treasure to, or it is cast so broadly that it seems improbable that it can be accomplished by those who must carry it out. Visions fail because they are either too small and suffer with dwarfism or are too lofty and suffer from elephantiasis. Prayer and ongoing healthy discussion with key leadership will contribute to a balanced ministry. 

As you craft a new vision or refurbish an existing one make sure it:

touches the heart to create passion,is full of hope,paints a picture of a desired future that overcomes the world’s distress and pain,builds unity within the church and its leadership,and depends on God’s Spirit and direction to right size the vision and access His power.

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Three Unseen Hooks Dragging Your Church Down and How to Pull Back Up

Church leaders are more on guard right now. It’s understandable. Decision fatigue is a real issue with many pastors. People seem to gravitate to the extremes more easily. Hypersensitivity is pervasive.

As a result, you might find your defenses up and your fuse shorter than normal.

Three hooks could be dragging you down. These hooks are often unrecognized even with the healthiest of leaders. Through our work at Church Answers, we’ve seen how churches and leaders can get snagged. The reason is hooks are enticing. It’s easy to get pulled down by cynicism, nostalgia, and fantasy.

Cynicism drags you down with a lack of love for people right now. The cynic believes people are driven by self-interest and little can be done to improve the future. When a leader becomes cynical, people feel it even if they don’t recognize it. It is easy to be cynical right now, especially as a church leader, because most people do not know how much you are working to keep the church afloat.

The problem is cynics tend to stop loving people in the moment. The hook of cynicism becomes a drag because strong leaders who exhibit contempt will often win the war with strategy and lose the peace with their people.

The solution to cynicism is intentional compassion. Make a list of people you know who are in a rut and create a kindness campaign. Reach out to every person on the list and encourage them in some way. The drag of cynicism lessens with each act of compassion.

Nostalgia drags you down with a misguided love of the past. In the book of Ezra, a group of people complained during the rebuilding of the temple. They lamented how it was nothing compared to Solomon’s temple. At the time they complained, the foundation was just finished. That’s it. They complained from the beginning of the project!

Show me a church that loves the past more than the future, and I will show you a church that is disobedient. Here’s why: God does not save anyone in the past, but He will save people in the future. Nostalgia is not always bad. Fond memories can prompt people to act today. Nostalgia becomes a major problem when people long for the past more than they anticipate God’s work in the future. Nostalgia produces paralysis. Overly nostalgic churches become apathetic to kingdom work.

The solution to nostalgia is community involvement and evangelism. Start by taking a deep dive into your community demographics. Church Answers has a great tool to help any church. You can better reach your community if you know your community. Sharing Christ with others today will stomp out a misguided love of the past.

Fantasy drags you down with a misguided love of the future. Pastors are notorious for loving the church of the future more than the church of the present. If you don’t love your church where she is today, then you do not deserve to lead your church tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with an occasional daydream of what could be, but you cannot live in an unrealistic fantasy of the future. The hook of fantasy is enticing because the bait is often vision. An unattainable vision is just as problematic as misguided nostalgia.

The solution to fantasy is an investment in relationships. Stay in the moment by taking people out to lunch, writing letters, making phone calls, and sending texts letting people know you are praying for them.

Cynicism, nostalgia, and fantasy are hooks that drag. Pull back up with intentional compassion, community involvement, and investment in relationships.

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A Challenge to Keep on Praying for Non-believing Loved Ones

I suspect I speak to most believers—if not all of them. Many of us have unbelieving loved ones for whom we’ve been praying for years. In some cases – particularly as church leaders, for whatever reason – we’ve often carried that burden alone. We grieve the spiritual condition of others, but we do it in the privacy of our own lives.

My prayer is that this post changes that pattern. 

I was not raised in a Christian home. I first heard the gospel from a seventh-grade classmate who loved me enough to share the gospel with me. He was passionate, persistent (obnoxious, actually, at times), and persuasive. When I became a believer at age 13, he and my pastor encouraged me to begin praying for my parents and family to become believers. So, I did.

For 36 years, in fact, before my dad chose to follow Christ.

He was 71 years old before he became a Christian, but the Lord radically changed him in the last three years of his life. He devoured the Scriptures, showed love to others, conquered his temper, and exhibited peace we had never before seen. The transformation was indeed amazing.

My mom, though she had seen the change in Dad did not choose to follow Christ . . . until this last week, that is. 

In a dramatic display of God’s grace, He has saved my mom just like He did my dad. She’s 79 years old, and we’ve been praying for her for at least 47 years – but the change in her is just as obvious as it was with my dad. She put it in words this way: “That peace I saw in your dad, I now see in my own face when I look in the mirror.” That’s amazing, too. 

Here’s my point: don’t give up on unbelieving loved ones. God’s clock and calendar may not be yours, but He’s still doing the work of saving people. Keep praying, and get others to join you in that work. God hears—even if He takes His time in responding.

We at Church Answers want to pray for you and your loved ones, too. Let us know how we might intercede for you and others.

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Easter Is Over. Now What? Five Steps to Sanity

You pastors and church leaders have been through so much. While others have likewise had severe challenges, pastors have truly had one challenge after another.

You lead an organization that is designed to meet and gather. You lead a church that by its very nature seemed shackled by the pandemic. You had to lead both a virtual church and deal with real in-person needs. Many of you had never preached to a camera before COVID. 

Now, most of you are seeing your church regather. For sure, not everyone is back, but at least you are meeting in person. And for many of you, this past weekend was an incredible time of celebration of the resurrection. But you had to work hard during Holy Week. Many of you had multiple services throughout the week.

It was a celebration. It was a great occasion. But it was also exhausting.

What do you do now?

I know many of you already have packed calendars, so my question is not as much one of activities as it is the higher-level issue of priorities. I have worked with pastors and church leaders for over thirty years. May I make a few suggestions so that you might regain your physical, emotional, and spiritual stamina? For now, I will limit my excursion to five steps to sanity.

Rest. I mean it. I don’t know what your perfect definition of rest is, but you need to learn to rest. It might mean taking a deep breath or a short break. It might mean sleeping more hours. It might mean saying no a few more times. Return to Acts 6:4. Make a commitment to spend more time in prayer and the Word. Put both items on your calendar. Keep the commitment. You can’t work effectively for Jesus until you have a full relationship with Jesus. That comes by prayer. That comes by being in the Word consistently. Remember your church’s address. Seriously. God gave you the current location of your church for a reason. The location of your church’s physical address is not an accident. Yes, you are a pastor to a church. But you are also a minister to your community. Get to know leaders in your community better. Walk around the neighborhoods where your church is located. Look fresh at the Acts 1:8 Jerusalem where God has called you. Develop relationships and community with other pastors. This approach really works well when you get to know your peers in the community. And we would love to have you at Church Answers where nearly 2,000 pastors and other church leaders gather digitally 24/7 in a safe environment. Make a commitment to lead your church outwardly. You don’t have to jump into a massive outreach program immediately. But get a mindset that is ready to move church members beyond themselves and beyond the walls of the church buildings. You probably saw the recent research by Barna Research. Fewer than one-half of Americans now identify with a church. The United States is one of the largest mission fields in the world. Serve that mission field. Reach that mission field.

Easter is over. But the work of ministry on this side of heaven is never over. Thank you, pastors. Thank you, church staff. You deserve more than mere words of gratitude. But, for now, please know that many of us love you, support you, and pray for you.

Easter is over. But your greatest future is just ahead.

The post Easter Is Over. Now What? Five Steps to Sanity appeared first on Church Answers.

Four Positive Signs We Are on the Cusp of a Church Revitalization Movement

I believe we are on the cusp of a church revitalization movement. The signs are there. Will churches follow them? On the road, a sign is no good unless it helps you travel to your destination. The signs point in the right direction for a church revitalization movement, but for it to happen churches will need to move.

1. Almost every church is smaller, but the core is stronger than ever. The return rate of people in churches is highly localized right now. Additionally, larger churches have lower return rates, while smaller churches are recovering more quickly. By this fall, Church Answers expects most congregations to be at 80% pre-pandemic levels.

This trend does not seem like a positive sign on the surface. How can smaller churches be good? As those on the periphery faded during the pandemic, the core strengthened. Your congregation is likely as flexible as it has ever been. People are more receptive to change. A flexible church with a strong core is better than a larger, inflexible church.

2. The number of church adoptions has the potential to catch the number of church closures. No church should die. The sad reality is some will. But church adoptions are on the rise. When a church is adopted, a healthier and stronger congregation receives a more vulnerable congregation into the family. Two families are brought together. Some refer to this arrangement as a merger, but I prefer the language of adoption.

My congregation, West Bradenton, recently adopted Southside Baptist. The campus at Southside has grown from a dozen to about forty. People in the community are showing up, and children are now present on the campus regularly. The Southside campus launched with less than ten volunteers and no budget funds. Last Sunday, they did a soft launch in the new worship space. I’m proud of their work! The potential exists for more church adoptions and fewer church closures. 

3. Pastor tenure will be longer after the great reshuffling. Like people in other professions, pastors are exhausted and struggling with decision fatigue. A great reshuffling is occurring. Many pastors are considering a transition. Some have experienced a loss in their family because of COVID-19 and desire to move closer to home. Others got pushed out during the pandemic. At Church Answers, we’ve heard story after story of power groups using the pandemic for an evil cause. Some pastors are using this season to retire, while others simply need a change of scenery.

During the next several months, pastoral transitions will ramp up. Resettling will follow the reshuffling. Most revitalizations take five years to pick up momentum. When a pastor leaves before the five-year mark, the church has trouble building the energy to carry forward a revitalization. Over the long term, we expect pastor tenure to lengthen and get better, especially as Millennials enter the prime of their careers. With longer pastor tenures, revitalization is more likely.

4. The neighborhood church movement is primed for a launch. The neighborhood church is associated with a particular neighborhood. It is common for them to carry the name of the community. They were originally started in the community and for the community. They are built into the fabric of the community and are often landlocked, surrounded by residences. Neighborhood churches tend to be smaller or midsize and are established. For years, we have dismissed the potential for these churches. I believe they are primed for a comeback. They are numerous and in the heart of places with lots of people.

I am optimistic about a church revitalization movement. The positive signs are there. Let’s get moving.

If you are looking to learn more about how to lead a church revitalization, then here is an excellent opportunity. 

Check out the 4th annual Revitalize Conference. It’s April 8th and 9th, so time is running out to register.

Powerful Sessions: Each session has been hand-picked to help your church go from some simply surviving to spiritually thriving!Revitalization Pathways: This is not your typical conference with random topics but a comprehensive master class to help you travel the revitalization roadmap.Value Packed: Over 16 insightful sessions from leading revitalization experts that cover church-wide spiritual renewal, strategic transformational steps, and contextualization for today’s challenging ministry environment.Self-Paced:  Attend fully or partially on April 8th and 9th or use the registration pass to complete this Master Class on-demand, at your own pace.Affordable Price:  Similar courses like this can cost you hundreds of dollars, but we are making this limited-time offer of $50 per individual or apply the 20% church group discount by entering the promo code “GROUP”. Register at https://churchrevitalize.org/conferences/

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