Church Revitalization

I was shocked – shocked I tell you! – to learn I was a “Protestant.” But that’s what my mother told the intake nurse we were. This startling discovery occurred when the local hospital granted my application for admission. They needed to know should they need to send for the proper chaplain if a sudden

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”1 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s pungent observation of the rich can be said of Turnaround pastors.2 They are different from their ministry colleagues. But the differences are deeper, more fundamental than the results of their ministry. These differences don’t lie in what Turnaround pastors

Turnaround pastors face a grim reality. When they introduce change that will eventually produce life and growth in the church, people will jump, many without good reason. It is painful to watch because, with a little patience and a little mentoring, these folks could probably be rescued to the cause. But there are others that

I’m going to jump in the deep water here. I’m going to swim against the riptide. Why am I dumb enough to jump into deep water and swim against riptides? Because Jesus never said anything about a lot of the stuff we think is important in a church. A lot of “practical ecclesiology” is stuff

There are two surprising values held by pastors who preside over church decline. Two of the most cherished evangelical values have negative correlations to church growth. One of these values is at the very heart of evangelicalism itself. Pastors who score this value exceptionally high – higher than their evangelical colleagues – are far more likely to lead declining

Bad news. You just got word that a mega- multi- church is metastasizing again, throwing up a campus down the street. They’ll probably open with 1500 or more their first Sunday. Worried that some of them’ll be yours? The message in your says, “Time to panic ‘cuz the big dog’s moving in.” What do you