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This week, my wife, Marty, and I had the honor of attending a church planter's retreat sponsored by the Converge Northwest District and held at the beautiful Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center on the rugged Pacific coast in northern Oregon. Read on to discover just a small amount of what was seen and heard at that relaxed gathering. Maybe you and your church can learn from my observations.
Some people ask, "Why plant churches?" They might continue, "Don't we have enough churches already in America/our city/our neighborhood?" There are a number of reasons, and here are some of them.
Most churched people in North America and maybe around the world attend or are being ministered to by small churches. I am defining a small church as one that has fewer than 125 in face-to-face, average attendance during worship services. These churches and their leaders need not apologize for being small and seemingly insignificant. In fact, they are the churches that may have the greatest impact for the Gospel in their communities. They matter! This blog offers some reasons why, so keep reading to find out why the small church matters to God and to its community.
Have you ever been to a business meeting and after 20 minutes wondered why you are even there? Are others who are there thinking the same thing. If your answer to these questions is yes, then you need some help. The following suggestions can increase the meeting's effectiveness.
As a former church planter, coach, and trainer of church planters, and assessment team member in several church planter assessment centers, I highly value the need and importance of a CPAC. Here are 10 reasons why every aspiring church planter needs to go through the experience of a church planter assessment center.
This week I'm camped out in a hotel room waiting for a Converge Church Planter Assessment Center to begin tomorrow morning. I'll be one of many assessors on a team to help the candidates discern God's will for their first or next ministry. The center will be assessing 10 couples over a three-and-a-half-day period. I'm a veteran assessment team member having served in seven of them a while back, and I've been looking forward to another go at it. As I reflect on beginning the experience again tomorrow, I want to share with you a major observation - a ministry assessment experience should be required for all seminary students. Here's why I say that.
One of your top essential guiding documents is the church by-laws. You know, that business-like, long document that you have in some file somewhere? The reality is few people in your church have ever looked up something in it or been guided by it in their ministry. But why is it so important if you seldom use it? And why do you need to take a look at it now? Here are some answers for you to consider.
This evening I received in my inbox an evaluation to fill out for my local gym. I try to go to this local workout hangout three times a week, at least thatâ°°s my goal. Unlike many surveys of such kind, I chose to let the gym know of my experiences this time. As I reflect on this opportunity, it made me wonder why local churches donâ°°t do that for those who visit or attend. My reflections turned into a blog, so here goes.
This year's election, which is still not decided at the time of writing this blog, is a difficult one for pastors. Read on for some of the reasons.
Yearly ministry review evaluations for the pastor and the elders or church leadership team are very important if you understand the why and how of conducting them. Read on to discover a summary of why they are needed and how to best use them.
For the church or ministry organization, a mission or purpose statement is like a North position on a compass that helps you arrive at your destination. It provides a clear reason why a church exists and points every ministry and leader in the right direction. A ministry coach can greatly help a pastor ministry leader develop a strong and effective mission statement.