Tag Archives: church

Is my church unhealthy?

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Thom Rainer, author of the recently released Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God can help you figure it out.

What were some of the warning signs my team saw? Though the list is not exhaustive, these five issues were common. Some of the churches had a one or two on the list; some had all five.

1. The church has few outwardly focused ministries. Most of the budget dollars in the church are spent on the desires and comforts of church members. The ministry staff spends most of its time taking care of members, with little time to reach out and minister to the community the church is supposed to serve.

2. The dropout rate is increasing. Members are leaving for other churches in the community, or they are leaving the local church completely. A common exit interview theme we heard was a lack of deep biblical teaching and preaching in the church….

Interesting stuff, and useful. Read the rest here at the Christian Post.

Lou Engle issues call to prayer over next 5 days

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From prayer leader Lou Engle:

It is critical that the Church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested. Several happenings are converging this week.

First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer, but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly, at the same time, a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the Church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding, but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.

Read the rest here.

Questions for the future

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Two important questions for the future in today’s Christian Post. Chuck Colson asks about the limits of obedience to the government… are State-run churches coming to America under the guise of preventing hate crimes and the like?

According to the Daily Telegraph, starting next year, the British government is going to begin forcing churches and other religious institutions to hire open, practicing homosexuals. It will happen under the provisions of the so-called Equity Bill, which forbids discrimination against homosexuals or transsexuals.

The law would “cover almost all church employees,” according to Deputy Equities Minster Maria Eagle. “The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between,” Eagle said. Church groups, she said, “cannot claim that everything they run is outside the scope of anti-discrimination law.”

A related question is what on earth are we doing to stem the loss of youth from churches in the U.S.? Aren’t all the social problems we face (such as one just referenced) due to our failure to evangelize and bring the culture of the Kingdom to the last several generations of youth in the Western world?

A new survey shows that

…95 percent of 20- to 29-year-old evangelicals attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years. Only 55 percent went to church during high school. And by college, only 11 percent were still attending church.

If we can’t retain 90 of the kids we have, how are we going to reach the ones that aren’t even coming?

Who goes to megachurches?

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Not that we have too many of them in New England, but there’s an interesting survey out about the people who attend a megachurch, defined as a church with 2,000 members. From the Christian Post:

The report – “Not Who You Think They Are: The Real Story of People Who Attend America’s Megachurches” – is based on data from a national survey that drew 24,900 responses from 12 carefully selected megachurches across the country. It is claimed to be the largest national representative study of megachurch attendees conducted by any researchers to date….

Although megachurches have nearly twice as many new attendees, most of the new people are already Christians and came from another church. Seventy-seven percent said they have been long-time committed Christ followers for seven or more years and only 2 percent said they are not a follower. Also, 18 percent had not attended church for a while before coming to the megachurch and just 6 percent said they never went to church previously.

Most megachurch attendees (82 percent) come at the invitation of a friend, family member or co-worker, the study found. Only 19 percent said they saw the church or viewed media about it and came on their own.

Only 16 percent said they viewed the church’s website before attending.

Examining what attracts people to megachurches, the survey found that the worship style, senior pastor, and reputation of the church, respectively, were the strongest factors in initial attraction.

Those three items were also most influential in having people stay. The senior pastor, however, proved to be the strongest factor that kept people coming back.

The entire report can be read here at the website of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

You can also read and download the report as a PDF document here: National Survey of Megachurch Attenders.

Mainline churches shrink. Will advertisements help?

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Mainline Protestant denominations continue their free-fall, as highlighted in a US News & World Report piece that explores their adventures in advertising.

“The under-35 generation thinks church is a judgmental, hypocritical, insular place,” says Jamie Dunham, chief planning officer for Bohan Advertising & Marketing, the firm that designed the United Methodist campaign.

The idea of trying to advertise your way out of that problem was promptly savaged by Kevin Hendricks at the popular Church Marketing Sucks blog, who noted:

If that’s the case, I’m not sure an advertising campaign is the answer…. The problems in the church today can’t be fixed with an ad campaign. Marketing (not an ad campaign, but marketing in the big picture sense) can help to address those problems, but you can’t re-brand your way out of trouble.

Probably not.

Why we have to screen comments

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On the Internet, people can say anything about anybody.  Sadly, and to our shame, this is often true even in Christian circles.

From time to time we receive comments about professing Christians which, were I to publish them, would subject me to a lawsuit for slander.  I do not doubt that many such writers and commentators are sincere in their desire to see the Lord’s Bride be a pure Church “without spot or wrinkle.”  However, this will never justify us publicizing things about others which may not be true and of which even the commenter has no personal knowledge – especially where it concerns a person’s character.  I ask my commenting friends to examine themselves and ask: who called them to remove the spots and wrinkles?

I agree that the Lord’s command not to judge lest we be judged has been perverted at times and even used as a cloak for sin.  Nevertheless, this does not invalidate His command or other Biblical counsel about judging righteous judgment, and not judging others before we hear what they have to say.

For these reasons, I do not wish to publish comments which slander other Christians, hold them up to contempt or allege ungodly deeds on their part, particularly on hearsay evidence.  It is not right.  If you wish to make such assertions you are free to do so on your own blog.  But considering the words of Christ, do it at your own risk.

When you vandalize a church, make sure you get the right one!

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I actually couldn’t help laughing when I read about this – and I’m a pastor! In the fight to defend traditional values this story pretty much tells you how we got to where we are today.

After unknown persons, probably upset about California banning homosexual marriage, spray-painted swastikas on a San Francisco Catholic Church, the pastor was upset. But not for the reason you might think. From KCBS, out West, comes this gem:

Vandals may have marked up the wrong church Saturday night in an apparent revolt against Proposition 8 supporters.

Black spray-painted swastikas marred the front of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco’s Castro district. Though the church itself is gay friendly, the proposed ban on gay marriage had support from prominent Catholics up to and including Pope Benedict.

Pastor Steve Meriweather told KCBS his parishioners actually share the vandals’ sentiment against Prop 8. “I think it’s unfortunate that they selected our community to attack,” said Meriweather, “because it’s the wrong one.”

If only they had asked the good pastor first he might have directed them to a church more worthy of being vandalized!

Photo credit: Facade of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York by David Shankbone