Ways for Churches to Build Relationships With People in Group Homes
Looking to grow your church? Likely, you have people living close by who would love to get involved.
The Church Renewal forum provides fresh conversations and new ideas to help churches renew their atmosphere and journey towards mission in a post-Christian culture.
Looking to grow your church? Likely, you have people living close by who would love to get involved.
What if we did church differently? As a searching CRC member, here are some ideas I want to throw out there.
This journey started over thirty years ago when we received a call from a mom who asked us if her son could come to our church. Today, twenty five percent of our congregation is persons with developmental disabilities.
Much has been written to praise and critique Alan Hirsch’s book 5Q; Reactivating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ. Despite what is being said, I find Hirsch to be particularly compelling on a couple points.
Most churches experiencing church-wide renewal also experience renewal among their deacons. They move away from financial management, administration and governance and toward stewardship, mercy and the pursuit of justice.
Often pastors are not optimizing this new staff potential because they are insufficiently coordinating and encouraging the new staff teams. Here are 5 supervisory investments that increase staff impact.
Many pastors believe they must do all the preaching, all the teaching, all the visiting, and all the administering because that is what they’re trained and paid to do. But the Bible has another idea about the work of pastors.
Peter Bush, in his book In Dying We Are Born, writes, “All congregations, even ones that see themselves as healthy, need to be prepared to die, to take up their cross, so that God can make them alive.”
Every church leader is a good captain when their faith community is navigating quiet waters. The test of a great church leader, however, is when a congregation is traversing the turbulent seas of ministry change.
Whatever precipitates the conclusion “we cannot stay here” the next question always is, “so where do we go from here?” Churches asking that question have several next-step options.
Christian doctrine is based on several theological twins e.g., truth & grace, fully God & fully human, sovereignty & free-will. Similarly, church renewal is elliptical. Renewal only happens when churches invest in the following twins.
Recently I heard Bill Hybels articulated eight elder approved statements that name their highest values. These statements can serve as a helpful conversation starter for ministries seeking to identify ministry priorities.
Congregations that are growing primarily by connecting the disconnected tend to be low bar/high bar churches. They have a low cultural bar (it's easy to walk and assimilate) but a high discipleship bar.
Churches that are below peak membership but haven’t rightsized systems and structures look organizationally frumpy, exhaust members, and reduce their Kingdom impact. Here are some ideas to right-size a smaller congregation!
Through an emphasis on Gospel preaching and life-on-life disciple making, Sunlight Community Church (CRC) in Port St. Lucie, FL, has celebrated nearly 600 people coming to faith in the past ten years.
A key component of a mission-focused transition is seeing a picture of what’s possible when the right investments become part of a congregation’s story.
What’s the essential work of an elder? Articulating vision is the primary work of elders. Here’s how elders attend to this visioning responsibility…
Announcements typically feel like an intrusion into an otherwise sacred event. There is, however, another way to communicate information that enhances worship and underscores mission.
So, what numbers should be counted to identify missional health? A good place to begin is with three numbers every CRCNA congregation reports to the Yearbook.
A good vision statement reflects the uniqueness of your congregational setting. Here are some ways to land vision in your neck of the woods!
In the CRCNA 75% of churches are plateaued or in decline. The average loss of membership in those churches has been 25.1% in ten short years. The time is now to convince the church “we cannot stay here." Here are five ways to create a sense of urgency.
This book (Ritual Water, Ritual Spirit: An Analysis of the Timing, Mechanism and Manifestation of Spirit-Reception in Luke-Acts) analyzes Spirit-reception in Luke-Acts with respect to timing, mechanism and manifestation.
Godly leaders and Christ-centered congregations always want to move towards a God’s-preferred future. Here are two questions to get your congregation started on the journey.
The most important thing any congregation can do to be Christ’s vibrant spiritual oasis is to vigilantly keep their relational waters sweet. Here are 6 ways leaders can keep the waters sweet.
It takes courage to break free from the vortex. It takes courage for leaders to stop spinning ministry plates. Here are 5 simple suggestions that may help Christian leaders get started.