Christian Unity
It’s been a month.
Four full Sundays of worship at home.
And with every week that goes by, I realize more than ever how much I miss it.
No, not the building. You can have the building.
Not even the event. You can have that, too.
I miss the people.
I miss gathering as the church.
As of today, the CDC has recommended that all gatherings of 50 or more people should be canceled for the next 8 weeks.
Small church win, right?
Wrong.
No one wins in this.
No “I told you so’s”
As a long-time proponent of the value of small churches, you might think ...
Don’t take it personally.”
That may be the worst piece of advice I’ve ever received about ministry. It fails on so many levels.
Here are six of them.
1. Jesus Took Ministry Very Personally
Can you imagine Jesus giving anyone that advice? “Take up your cross ...
When I hear about people leaving the church, my heart breaks.
Certainly, the church is messy. It’s broken. It’s in constant need of repentance, forgiveness, revitalization, renewal and reappraisal.
That’s how it is with families.
And, because the church truly ...
There are two approaches when we talk about church size.
The first one is to use church size and, more specifically, church growth as the main way to tell if a church is healthy, strong and effective. Big and getting bigger? Great! Small and staying small? Not so good.
The second ...
Small church pastors labor under a great deal of discouragement.
They work unbelievably long hours (often full-time at a paying job in addition to pastoral ministry) with very little money (many supplement the church from their bivocational pay) and very little encouragement.
People aren’t giving enough.
People aren’t attending enough.
People aren’t volunteering enough.
These are the complaints I hear most often from other pastors when we’re talking about the frustrations they have with church members.
Family Frustrations
Before ...
Of all the ingredients needed for a healthy church, one of the most important is a leadership team that works well together.
This is true for a megachurch with paid staff, and for a small church working entirely with volunteers.
One of the most visible and influential relationships ...
There are two big myths about the way we view churches of various sizes.
Myth #1: Big churches got big because they compromised their message, stole sheep or had some special advantage unavailable to other churches.
Myth #2: Small churches stay small because they’re lazy, ...
Read More from Karl
