Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 79

9 Reasons Churches Stop Evangelizing Well

In reviewing a church’s history, it’s much more likely to find them an evangelizing church during their early years than their later ones. Frankly, most churches lose the evangelistic passion that marked them in their beginning. Here are some reasons why:

In their early days, reaching lost people is part of their vision – but that focus decreases as the church grows. No longer are they driven to evangelize as much once the church reaches critical mass.
As the church matures, leaders give their attention to internal matters. Questions like what type of polity will we have, when will we build (if we do), what curriculum will we follow, and others divert attention from evangelism.
Pastoral care requires more time as the church grows. It’s really a simple formula: more people in the congregation = more needs to meet and more requests for care. It’s tough to meet those needs and evangelize, too.
Leaders fail to equip others to help them do ministry. Instead of delegating work so they can keep casting vision for evangelism, they wind up carrying all the responsibilities themselves. Evangelism almost always takes a back seat then.
Fellowship—as great as it can be—becomes self-protective. That is, the church loves to be together because it feels like a “safe place” from a messed-up and chaotic world. Churches in protection mode seldom invite outsiders to join them.
Transfer growth takes their attention off evangelism. The church might well be growing, but it’s growing by swapping sheep with other congregations. That growth—consistent though it may be—lulls the church to sleep evangelistically.
The church plans so many activities that members have no time left to develop relationships with non-believers. The growing church offers more activities, and they often quietly expect members to participate in everything. The result is busy members who don’t know non-believers.
Nobody’s paying attention to conversion numbers. They may have been burdened about those numbers during the early days of the church, but not so much anymore. Accountability decreases, and so does evangelism.
Leaders don’t teach enough about the lostness of human beings. I’m convinced many members believe good people are going to heaven apart from a relationship with Christ—and only consistent biblical teaching will change their perspective. Too little teaching on this topic leads to too little evangelism.

What would you add to this list?

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How Involved Should the Lead Pastor Be in the Selection of Worship Songs?

A church with one service a week will likely sing over two hundred songs in a year. Our church has five services in two languages at two sites on Sunday. We also have Wednesday night programming. Throw in the student service and children’s ministry, and we probably sing close to two thousand songs in a year (obviously some are sung more than once).

Songs elicit emotion. That’s how the art form works. Worship is no exception. Most have a favorite worship song. Most will have a few worship songs they don’t like. One song can mean something different to two people standing next to each other in the same service. A worship pastor can craft an excellent plan of two thousand songs in a year and still receive complaints about “that one song.” In my pastoral experience, people care more about song selection than they do church doctrine.

Given the acute attention to worship songs, I asked a question of the Church Answers community and posted the same question on Twitter. The poll was done more for fun than science, but over three hundred people responded. 

How involved should the lead pastor be in the selection of worship songs? 

The Church Answers community provided a lot of clarification around these percentages in Church Answers Central, our coaching and consulting forum.

The level of involvement should be higher with a less experienced worship pastor. A long-tenured lead pastor will have more oversight with a new, inexperienced worship pastor. An inexperienced and young lead pastor should lean into the recommendations of a long-tenured worship pastor. 

Lead pastors should provide plenty of lead time with themes and directions of sermon series. The worship ministry is often the largest ministry in the church (in close competition with the children’s ministry). Coordinating large amounts of volunteers takes time. When the lead pastor makes changes right before weekend worship services, it can cause a lot of chaos in the worship ministry. 

Sole pastors of smaller churches with volunteers tend to do more song selection than lead pastors of larger churches with staff. This one makes sense. I did most everything at my first church, which had all of six people. I not only selected the songs, but I led worship. On a karaoke machine. Yes, it was as bad as you are thinking.

There is a distinction between “picking” and “approving” songs. Some churches have a predetermined bucket of songs from which to choose. The lead pastor works with the worship ministry on selecting these songs ahead of time. Then the worship pastor can choose from them for any given service. 

A weekly standing meeting between the lead pastor and worship pastor is beneficial and will help with tensions that can exist with song selection. When the worship pastor and lead pastor meet regularly, a bond of trust is formed. A standing meeting can build unity and friendship that the church will feel during worship.

The goal of song selection is more complex and deeper than simply reinforcing the sermon. The worship experience should do more than simply build up to the sermon. Worship pastors selecting songs desire to complement the sermon, but there is more to the process. Churches are full of people with a complexity of emotions and experiences. Worship pastors should select songs according to the mood and experience of the church, in addition to the text and topic of the sermon.

Equip or hire the right people and you will not need to be as concerned about song selection. When lead pastors micromanage song selection, it can become a source of frustration for competent worship pastors. 

Song selection is one of the most visible parts of a worship experience—something felt by most everyone in the church. Lead pastors should be in tune with what songs the church sings. High-level guidance is what most believe is the best degree of involvement.

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One Weird Letter as an Example of What Pastors Have to Endure (Particularly in a COVID Era)

I received an email through Church Answers a couple of years ago. A team member sent it to me because she thought it would lighten my day. It was a bit strange after all.

I decided to hold the email for a while and choose a good time to share it with our readers. Our team has noted that the COVID era is a period when all the complaints pastors get seem to be coming at once.

Well, this letter epitomizes this era. I changed some of the verbiage that would identify the writer, the church, and the pastor. Note that the writer is not a member of the church. She decided to do her own investigation based on the complaints of others. She further insisted that Church Answers do its own investigation of this pastor.

The Weird Letter

Hello. My name is Betty and I am writing you a formal complaint against Bill Jones who is the pastor at Community Church in Gravetown.  I had heard numerous complaints about his so-called preaching and I decided to make a couple of visits to the church. 

In my opinion, he shouldn’t even be a pastor, let alone be the pastor at any church. Here are my reasons why. I think your organization should take time to investigate this matter. 

First of all, he calls the church site a campus, and he does not refer to it as the house of God. Secondly, he only reads one Bible verse, and the rest of the time he is either talking about sports and how teams played or not played, or he is talking about his children. 

Then it’s all about politics. He said abortion was a sin. I thought the church and government were separated. 

Then, there are also these two reasons for him to be removed as a pastor. First, he has actually canceled a Sunday evening service, and we know that’s against the Bible. Second is how he allows the people to dress. After all, this is the house of God and it should be respected and honored in God’s name, not wearing clothes that show too much or shorts. 

Then there are the iPhones used instead of the real Bible. All this he allows, which shows he truly doesn’t respect God or the house of God himself. 

I hope you take the time to check all this out for yourself and not just take my word for it, because he has been known to lie to members, saying he would do something then come up with an excuse. He will stand up in the pulpit not dressed as a pastor but in regular clothes. 

He also talks about money. They wouldn’t need money if the church had not remodeled their gym as a community center. The church is not supposed to be for outsiders. I thought this was a church and not a community center. I thought Bill Jones was a pastor, but he’s not. Thank you for your time, but I won’t be back to that church with that so-called pastor.

Please send me a copy of your investigation report. Thank you for your time.

Our Team’s Response

After much deliberation, our team decided not to investigate nor respond to the letter.

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How to Start (or Restart) Men’s Ministry in Your Church

At Radical Mentoring, we’re passionate about helping churches create environments for men to grow . . . in their relationships, in their spiritual journeys, in their leadership capacities.

Before I jump into how, let’s talk about why. Churches need leaders . . . strong leaders. Male and female. But especially male because when a man goes all-in for Jesus, his influence reverberates to his wife, his kids, his workplace, his community, and his church. He becomes a disciple-maker and draws other men to Jesus. He becomes a more generous giver, both of his time and treasure. Over time, his friends are attracted to how he lives.

But here’s the problem, hardly any pastors I talk to are totally satisfied when it comes to their men. They have a sense there could be more. More participation, more depth, more passion, more commitment.

Here’s what I know. Men’s ministries tend to be event-driven. There’s usually one guy spearheading everything. He organizes an ad-hoc team to make events happen. Outsiders are welcome but rarely come. There’s fellowship, food, and a speaker or program. When it’s over, the room is cleaned up and everyone goes on their way until the next event. Some churches also have curriculum-based studies that tend to draw only the most faithful or ongoing group environments that are more relational, but light on intentionality. So, most men’s ministries are bifurcated . . . events for the masses, intensive Bible study and groups for the few, and no system for consistently producing the leaders your church needs.

I believe the best way to start (or restart) a men’s ministry is through small group mentoring. Why? Because that’s how Jesus did it . . .

Jesus was on purpose – Jesus was kingdom-focused and He invites us into his mission by giving us the job of making disciples. Only through caring for others can we have the “life to the full” Jesus came to offer. God must raise up someone in your church to lead here. Maybe it’s you . . . maybe it’s someone you know.
Jesus handpicked a few guys – Jesus had more than twelve followers, but He picked a few to be his inner circle, praying intensely about His choices. Our event mentality is numbers-focused. Bigger numbers equal more success, right? No. Jesus started small. He poured into twelve guys and they multiplied. 
They walked through life together – Rarely did He sit them in rows and teach them stuff. They learned “along the way,” from real-time situations and people. A core men’s ministry leadership has to “do life together” for real bonding to happen. It can’t be a canned curriculum. It has to be authentic and relevant to their lives.
Jesus explained and lived Scripture – Jesus knew the Law. He brought it alive and made it relevant through His words and His deeds. His guys watched Him live it out through all kinds of circumstances. In a mentoring group, guys memorize key Scripture verses, apply them to their lives, and talk about them regularly.
Jesus prayed and taught them to pray – Jesus prayed with and for His guys, He modeled prayer, and gave them a glimpse of His intimate relationship with the Father by going off to pray alone. Guys who are in community with each other learn how to pray for each other . . . and they will.
A high level of commitment was required – Jesus’ disciples made huge time commitments. They left everything to follow Jesus. A strong men’s ministry begins with guys who are committed to growing in their walk. If they spend a year of intense effort under the guidance of a mentor, they’ll emerge understanding how important Jesus is to them and how important the church is to Jesus.
It was a community – Jesus was there as their leader, but the disciples intimately knew each other because they spent time together, worked together, and challenged each other. Just as the disciples created “ecclesias,” small gatherings of Jesus followers who became the church, when you establish a committed community of men, they’ll replicate that community with others. This is the secret sauce of building a men’s ministry because men feel like they belong.
There was a defined period of time – Jesus poured into His guys for three and a half years. Then He graduated them . . . sending them out to do the work of the Gospel. We’ve found that nine to twelve months is about the right amount of time for a group to be intensely connected. After that, it’s time to send them out . . . to lead, love, serve, and give.
It was about multiplication, not addition – Jesus told them upfront, “Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” From the very beginning, it was His stated intention to pass the baton. We’ve seen how men who experience Jesus through a mentoring group are chomping at the bit to pay it forward to others.

Since every one of Jesus’ guys had been taught the Law from birth, this was not about information transfer or content. It was about practical application. Jesus modeled a small group process that led to total commitment, and from that group, the church began.

Launching a vibrant men’s ministry through small group mentoring begins with you . . . the pastor. It begins with your commitment to seeing the men of your church go all-in for Jesus. You don’t have to personally mentor (although some pastors say that making disciples this way brought them new energy), but you must be committed to the process, leveraging your leadership and influence to help it launch.

Here’s a fly-by of our system, distilled from Jesus’ model, and adapted to our culture today, using tools that didn’t exist 2,000 years ago.

It begins with one leader. One spiritually, emotionally, and relationally mature man, handpicked by you. It can be a staff person or even yourself, but it has to be someone the men of your church look up to and respect. He has to be an on-purpose guy who loves Jesus and takes seriously “this way of life.” He is signing up to spend three hours with a group of guys in his home once a month. He must be willing to share his faith story . . . not just the Sunday school version, but “the good, the bad, and the ugly version.” 

Once you’ve got his commitment, then it’s working together to create a list of younger guys from your church who are believers but have the potential to do more . . . to be sold-out for Jesus and assume leadership roles later on when they’re ready. They’re invited by you, on behalf of the church, to apply for the group. This is huge because it communicates the importance and rarity of the opportunity. These guys make a covenant commitment to attend every monthly session, to do the homework, and to pay it forward. 

At the beginning of the year (following the mentor’s lead), each man shares his full-on story with the group. And then, month-by-month they cover a topic that is important from a spiritual formation perspective but also relevant to these men. Things like who God is, who they are in Christ, how to be good husbands, or how to create priorities. Each month, they read a book on the topic, memorize relevant Scripture, do a related homework assignment, pray, and connect one-on-one with another member of the group. At the end of the season, there’s a Commencement Retreat where the guys are sent out to love and lead. Some will move immediately into leading their first group. Some will pay it forward by using their gifting in other ways in the church. But all will grow through the process, including the mentor.

Do this a few times, through a few generations, and you’ll have that core group of men God will use, not only to build a vibrant men’s ministry but to grow and deepen your church and your community.

The beauty of this approach is its harmony with whatever you’re already doing. If your men’s ministry is at ground zero, this is a great way to start small and build a strong foundation. Even if you can only find four guys to invite, that’s enough to start. Watch God grow and energize four men and you’ll likely see more coming behind them. If you already have a men’s ministry, this system offers a “both/and” option that’ll build leaders who help elevate what you’re doing to the next level.

If your current men’s ministry is stuck . . . or dying . . . or ineffective, this is a way to breathe new life into it. The results might not show up immediately. But over time, no ministry can stand still when God grows all-in men and sends them on His mission for His church.

And here’s the best part, all of the resources you need to launch small group mentoring at your church are available to you for free through Radical Mentoring . That even includes a personal guide to coach you every step of the way. If you’re ready to get started, you can access our free resources here today.

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How to Create Breakthrough Social Media for Your Church

Recently my team and I were talking about trends that we’re seeing on social media from other churches. We’ve started to notice a pattern that happens every Saturday. 

We call it the “Saturday Can’t Wait”. 

Every Saturday like clockwork, churches all across the country post on Instagram and Facebook images of their church (usually it’s pictures of Sunday morning greeters), with the caption “We can’t wait to see you tomorrow”.

Why do churches do this? Well, probably because everyone else does. Of course, the problem is that these types of posts over time start to have diminishing returns. Your audience is eventually going to tune out of your church’s social media.

So how do you create breakthrough social media that isn’t just another “We can’t wait to worship with you!” post?

The first thing you need to realize is that  audiences are craving real authentic moments. They’ve become blind to the highly produced content that seems to be made for generic masses. They’re wanting something that is unique and connects with them on a deeper level. 

The second thing you need to realize is that there’s a difference between creating vs documenting. If you can shift your thinking and understand the difference between the two then you can start to break through to your church’s audience.

Creating vs Documenting

Now when I say breakthrough social media content, you’re probably thinking that you don’t have the time or resources to make that happen. This where creating vs documenting comes in.

When I say creating, I’m referring to the act of the crafting produced content for your church’s social media channels. This is content that usually requires some level of production or planning ahead. Here’s some quick examples:

Announcement Videos
Sermon Clips
Scripture or Sermon Quote Graphics
Testimonial Videos

The ideas above are solid pieces of content that you can create for your church. The issue is that these ideas can take up a lot of time and resources. Plus it can also create a sense of being overwhelmed when you start comparing your church with other churches and you see how well resourced other churches are. 

This sense of being overwhelmed can then translate into inaction because you feel like your church can’t “compete” with other churches. This is why reframing your thoughts on social media towards documenting instead of creating is so powerful. 

Documenting is the act of capturing moments in real time. Documenting is showing real life moments in real time. It requires a lot fewer resources and working knowledge of design or video production. Here are some quick examples of what you can document for your church:

Your Worship Service Planning Process 
Worship Band or Choir Rehearsals
Small Group Success Stories
Community Missions Moments (i.e. food drives, benevolence, etc..)
Daily Devotional (delivered via video)

Again, the ideas above don’t require a production team, all you need is a smart phone. Just simply take out the phone, open the social media app of your choosing (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, etc..) and start filming. There’s no need to get it perfect. Your audience will forgive the imperfections because the moments that you are documenting are real and that’s what the audience is looking for, real authentic moments. 

Not only will documenting create authentic content for your social media channels, it will also increase the frequency of posts on your church’s social media channels. 

Of course there’s a place for well-produced content that you’ve created for your church’s social media channels. However, you can’t let that content be the sole type of content that you’re posting for your church. Instead, focus the majority of your efforts on documenting and give your audience the real-life moments that they’re wanting.

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Five Seminal Leadership Books Every Pastor Should Master

For a book to be seminal, it must rise above the other works of the time. Not only must a seminal work stand out, it must also change paradigms and become an influencer of later developments. A seminal book is not necessarily current, but it is one you must master in order to understand current thought.

While the study of leadership can be traced back to such thinkers as Machiavelli, this field is relatively new. It is only in the last fifty years that the academy has recognized leadership studies as a formal discipline. 

So much of what we find in church leadership books today can be traced to a few seminal works in the field of leadership studies. I’ll share with you five of my favorite seminal works in leadership studies. There are others, for sure, but these five stand out as having a profound influence on what we find in church leadership literature, even if the authors don’t realize the origin of their thoughts.

You should master these five works if you lead a church. Each book has gone through several editions and revisions. I’ve provided the original publication date. 

Servant Leadership by Greenleaf (1977). As the father of modern servant leadership, Greenleaf introduced the idea that great leaders are the ones who are—deep down—servants first. This book champions the concept that authority should only be bestowed upon those leaders who have first demonstrated they are servants. Greenleaf believed society would change and become more caring as servant-leaders worked to produce more servant-leaders. Service to followers is the essence of ethical leadership. 

Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (1987). The authors were not the first to write about transformational leadership, but they refined the theory to its best point with five practices of exemplary leaders. They gave more focus to the follower and the responsibility of the leader to inspire a shared vision. 

Leadership without Easy Answers by Heifetz (1994). The primary responsibility of the leader is to equip followers to solve their own problems. One of the major problems in the leader/follower relationship is the unrealistic expectations followers place on leaders. He calls this problem the “leadership straight jacket.” The leader makes unrealistic promises to gain power, and followers too willingly give up power in exchange for these promises. Ultimately most leaders fail—and most followers turn on the leader—because of unfulfilled promises. Leaders and followers are intricately balanced, similar to the way a conductor holds the attention of a concert full of people. But at any one point, one person could easily unsettle the crowd. This book calls for adaptive leadership. The goal is to break the cycle of dependency of followers on leaders. Leadership is not just amassing power but guiding followers through their problems. Adaptive work is mobilizing people to face tough challenges at the rate they can absorb. 

Reframing Organizations by Bolman and Deal (1984). This book is the most influential on me personally. It changed the way I view leadership and management, and it gave me permission to utilize an area of leadership I had unfortunately neglected—the political frame. Bolman and Deal recognize the complexity of organizations. They also emphasize artistry and believe overemphasizing the rational and technical side of an organization can lead to its demise. They focus on leadership and management, showing how both are equally important. One of the best leadership tools is the ability to “reframe,” or think about situations in more than one way. Multiple frames are necessary because organizations are complex, surprising, deceptive, and ambiguous. And an artist’s mindset is needed to reframe organizations. 

Leadership by Burns (1978). This book won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and kickstarted the field of leadership studies as a formal discipline. Prior to this work, leadership research focused on traits of leaders and how they differed from non-leaders. Burns introduced the idea that leadership research is interdisciplinary. He showed how leadership is guided by the motivations of the relationship between leaders and followers. He gave leadership a moral dimension, that leading is more than just effectiveness. From this work, the idea of transformational leadership emerges, embedding into the leadership world that values matter. 

Not only should every leadership scholar master these five books, I believe every pastor should master them.

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Four Reasons Your Church Is Losing Volunteers after COVID-19

One of the most common challenges we are hearing from church leaders is the unexpected loss of volunteers. It is always a challenge to get and keep volunteers, but the problem seems exacerbated since the pandemic.

The challenge is real. Here are four of the most common reasons your church is losing volunteers. 

Some members are in their own phased-in plan to return to church. These members are hesitant to return to in-person activities. They are still concerned about exposure to COVID-19. They may be participating in socially-distanced worship services, but they are not quite ready for next steps. The good news is that these members will likely return to active volunteerism.


Some members were already phasing out before the pandemic. Your church was likely to lose them anyway, not only to volunteer ministries, but to the church entirely. They were headed toward dropping out; the pandemic accelerated the process. 


Some members have lost sight of the vision during the pandemic. They were motivated to volunteer as they captured the vision for the church. But it has been difficult for pastors and other church leaders to articulate a clear vision during the pandemic. Most leaders were doing everything they could just to hang on during these unprecedented times. 


Some members have moved away from volunteering since their small groups were not meeting in person. Many church members in small groups are motivated to volunteer together with fellow small group members. That motivation obviously diminished during the pandemic when the groups were not meeting in person. 

A number of church leaders are doing a commendable job of holding on to volunteers during these tenuous times. Here are four best practices that are being implemented to counter the four common reasons volunteers are dropping out of their positions. 

Stay in touch. Even if your church has begun regathering, stay connected to church members and volunteers through multiple touchpoints. Encourage small group leaders to connect regularly with others in the group. Volunteers can fade away when they aren’t hearing anything about and from the church.


Keep the vision in front of the church. Remind the church members of why God has called them to do ministry together. Use multiple and creative ways to communicate the vision. While the pandemic may have moved the church to do the vision differently, it has not made the vision go away. 


Emphasize gathered groups more than ever. Yes, we are all grateful for technology that allowed our groups to continue meeting digitally. But the in-person connection just can’t be replaced. As soon as it is wise and safe, encourage your groups to resume meeting in person. Most volunteerism comes from group members. 


Move quickly to bring new persons into volunteer positions. We are following a fascinating trend in many churches. The mix of those attending in-person services includes more new people than before. While churches are losing some of their existing members, God is bringing new people into the congregation. They represent key opportunities for new volunteers.

 We at Church Answers will continue to monitor the developments in church volunteerism. I would love to hear from you. What is your church experiencing in this key area of church life?

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4 Keys to Individual Biblical Literacy

I haven’t found anyone in church leadership who saw this coming. There aren’t stories of prescient church planners and innovators who had prepared for the day when nearly every church had to stop all programming, including Sunday worship services, and find ways to communicate with their members while they were largely confined to their homes. 

As a Christian publisher, we’ve faced different problems, including international supply chain issues, printing and delivery delays, and a halt in plans to provide resources to churches that aren’t meeting.  

One thing that has remained strong here at Tyndale is the demand by individuals for Bibles. People are indeed seeking out God’s Word as much around them has collapsed. I’m sure we’d all agree there has never been a better time to dive deeply into God’s Word. 

It may be that God will use this time to turn our generation to unprecedented repentance and faithfulness. I think that you’ll agree that a deep and lasting revival will depend on a groundswell of biblical literacy.

Perhaps you have faced in your church what research has shown to be the case nationally: regular church attenders love and respect the Bible, but less than 40 percent of them are reading the Bible regularly.  

So, how can pastors and church leaders promote biblical literacy and reading the Bible regularly?

We believe there are four keys: 

Readability – The individual’s ability to easily read the passage.
Portability – An individual’s ability to take scripture anywhere.
Understandability – Tools an individual can use to understand the meaning of the text.
Accessibility – Study materials and devotional guides an individual can use to practically apply what they are reading. 

This month the Tyndale team has launched The Filament Collection, a highly relevant suite of Bibles that combines readability, portability, study materials, and devotional depth. Filament is a fascinating, enjoyable, and comprehensive tool that can impact Bible literacy and provide a reading experience that can attract serious new readers.

We pray that, together with the bold and persistence ministry of pastors and church leaders, this season will be a catalyst for regular Bible reading and spread of the gospel.

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Creating a Structure for Digital Church

By now you are tired of hearing how much has changed since March. I will spare you the grandiose talk of “unprecedented times” and all of that. What has amazed me is how quickly churches have made the pivot to online ministry in such a short period of time. I’m convinced that we have done ten years’ worth of innovation in six months. Let that sink in, and then own the fact that you have led well in this season.

Now that many churches have reopened and routes forward are being plotted, we are repeatedly hearing leaders wrestle with how to continue to gain momentum with their virtual ministries while at the same time continuing to grow their in-person experiences. This isn’t easy.

So, where do we start? I am convinced that we need to begin by defining how we are going to do virtual ministry. As we have learned from churches and researched best practices, we have determined that there are 5 models for doing virtual ministry:

The Old Normal: These are churches who want to get back to the way things were in January. The goal is to have everyone back together in the sanctuary and to move forward from there. These churches will have recorded sermons on their website in an on-demand format, but not much else.
The Simul Service: These churches have the goal of everyone being together, in-person, on Sunday mornings but will live stream their services so that those who are on vacation, sick, or otherwise indisposed on Sunday morning can have a ‘second-best’ option for attendance.
The Building Feeder: BuildingFeeder churches ultimately want to have everyone together, in-person, on Sunday morning, but recognize that Sunday morning programming that is customized for their web and social channels can be a great front door for potential attenders. They approach their virtual ministries as a campus and program accordingly.
The Campus Launcher: This model is less focused on having people together on campus, but still highly values in-person gatherings. The goal of this model is to birth additional campuses, whether they are micro-sites meeting in people’s living rooms, or full-service campuses made up of hundreds of people. CampusLaunchers have a more regional approach to their virtual ministries as it ultimately leads to a new physical campus or church plant.
The Digital Disciple: This is the most radical model of them all as it seeks to engage and disciple people that they may never physically meet. The DigitalDisciple church seeks to extend its reach beyond its region, desiring to create a fully virtual church that makes disciples across the globe.

We dive more deeply into what we are seeing in this free download, but here is what we know: there is no right or wrong model. Each church will need to decide for themselves as to which model is the best fit and then begin to optimize their current staffing, budgeting, and programming to fit the model. While the model isn’t important, what is important is committing to one strategy and moving forward, to continue to build on the successes and momentum that you have experienced over the last six months. 

Interested in learning more about the online ministry strategy options? We unpack them more deeply in this free resource.

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10 Reasons to Use the Telephone Rather than Email in Ministry

I appreciate email, especially because I can communicate with people around the world at the touch of the “send” button. So, I’m not arguing against using email. I’m arguing that there are still good reasons to use the telephone when doing ministry. Here’s why:

The telephone often takes less time. I can usually ask a question, and get an answer more rapidly over the phone than I can by typing, sending, receiving, and responding to multiple emails. 
A voice can exude passion much more than an email can. If you want to convince someone to join you in a ministry task, you’re more likely to show your fire for the task in a phone call than in an email. Urgency in a voice goes a long way. 
Emails can be easily misread. We’ve all spent far too many hours explaining and re-explaining emails that recipients misunderstood. All the emojis in the world can’t take care of what a simple phone call can. 
An email can’t always do what ministry requires. An email in a time of grief or anger or questioning or fear might be a start, but it’s seldom the best way to minister to someone who needs to hear a comforting word. 
Ministry is about people . . . with names . . . and faces . . . and voices. Frankly, I have friends with whom I communicate often, but whose voice I haven’t heard in years. Even I as write these words, I realize that I’ve been missing a bit of who they are. 
A telephone call is almost unexpected now. We’ve become so accustomed to emailing that a phone call catches us off guard. Maybe that’s a reason to use the phone: to show somebody how much he or she matters. 
Email can be a ministry copout. Sometimes we use email to avoid the hard work of face-to-face, voice-to-voice confrontation, or challenge. That’s more cowardice than effective ministry. 
Ministry is incarnational. That means that ministry requires our being present “in the flesh.” I realize that a phone call isn’t fully incarnational, either, but it still requires us to talk to somebody. Even the letters in the Bible were often hand-delivered and read by a person. 
Phone calls sometimes allow for dealing with issues more rapidly.  Sure, email is instant, but that assumes the recipient has immediate Internet access. Sometimes it’s just quicker to make a phone call when dealing with a pressing matter.   
Ministry is often about oral communication. Most of us (including me) will continue doing emails, regardless of this post – and I understand that necessity. The more we can actually speak to people and communicate clearly, though, the more we can improve this critical aspect of ministry. Practice – even on the phone – is good. 

What are your thoughts?  

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