Sam Rainer's Blog, page 10

The Top Ten Next Steps for New Church Members

Congratulations! You joined a church. Now what? While every church has a different procedure for church membership, there are some simple things you can do to honor God in your decision. These items apply to everyone.

First, read your Bible every day. A national research study revealed something remarkable. The number one way people grow spiritually is daily Bible reading, but only 35 percent of active churchgoers study their Bibles at least once a week. Ask anyone if they want to be healthier s...

How to Check Back into Your Church Job If You Have Been Checked Out for a While

Tens of millions quit their jobs during the Great Resignation. Beginning in March 2021, most areas of the economy experienced a mass of people leaving their current places of employment and seeking other jobs and careers. Over two years, a large portion of workers considered career changes and geographic relocations. The hospitality, education, and healthcare sectors were hit especially hard.

Pastors and paid church staff were not immune from this phenomenon. As a result, a Great Reshuffling als...

The Disappearance of the 30-Something and 40-Something Pastor (Here’s Why)

We’re all getting older. Almost every demographic in the United States is having fewer children. Population growth is slowing, and immigration rates are not fast enough to keep up with the aging nation.

In 1970, the median age was 28. Half the population was older than 28, and half the population was younger than 28. This midpoint is now approaching 40. So we’ve shifted from a younger nation to a middle-aged nation.

The economic implications of this shift are enormous but beyond the scope of th...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why is the American church apathetic...

The Best Metric to Determine Evangelistic Health in Your Church

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

The Conversion Ratio

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

A healthy church will have a conversion ratio o...

Five Essential Accountability Standards for Pastors and Paid Church Staff

Accountability is the acceptance of responsibility for your actions. But what does this acceptance look like with paid church staff?

It’s more than theology. For example, a church leader may believe in the biblical nature of accountability but not follow through, like a person who believes exercise is good for the body but never goes to the gym.It’s more than a system. A church leader may submit to a system of accountability but do so begrudgingly. Additionally, no system is perfect. Loophol...

Shifting Your Church Out of Survival Mode and into Hopeful Optimism

Many churches are barely hanging on, but there is hope.

Churches are simultaneously both fragile and resilient. They hang on by their fingernails, but those fingernails are surprisingly strong. Every Sunday seems to have the potential to be the last one. Yet the same church survives year after year, decade after decade. Struggling churches tend to maintain the constant tension between fragility and resiliency. It’s the perpetual state of not quite dying.

And it’s exhausting.

You have just enough...

The Top Three Ways Lead Pastors Can Serve the Second Chair

The second chair position is paradoxical for two reasons. First, a second chair involves the tension of submitting as a subordinate to the first chair while at the same time leading with a high level of influence. Second chairs maintain a dependence on the first chair while at the same time managing the significant amounts of freedom found near the top of the chain of command. Additionally, the second paradox involves being in an ever-changing role that is difficult to define while at the same t...

Is Gen Z More Likely to Attend Church Than Millennials? The Surprising Answer

Are the trends reversing? Could younger people return to church in greater numbers? Perhaps. It’s too early to tell, but one researcher gives a little hope. Ryan Burge reported on data indicating Gen Z is more likely to attend church than Millennials and Gen X. While almost a third of this younger generation does not claim a particular religion (the “nones”), they attend religious services at a slightly higher rate than their Millennial and Gen X parents.

More research is needed as this data co...