Conflict is to be expected; get in there and work on it. Possibly the best gift for your congregation is conflict training. The longer you wait, or the more you let fear paralyze you, the worse it gets.
All tagged church health
Conflict: Our Story (Part 1)
With this article, we offer our perspectives, regrets, and takeaways of our conflict, so that others may learn to behave with more skill and wisdom. In this first part, we’ll talk about how we got to that point of conflict, and the actions we took to try to resolve things.
Re-Centering our Faith
What do our churches believe? Obviously, I can’t speak for all churches across the country. However, I can speak to part of what my friend was asking. To do so means a little bit of history and a little bit of missiological theory—plus a good dose of theological imagination. Are you ready?
The Science Behind the Church Health Assessment: Establishing Red, Yellow, and Green Zones
The CHA is a survey designed to gauge a church’s health and facilitate essential conversations within the congregation. It measures nine factors of church health: vision, ministries, family life stages, spiritual formation, worship, congregational culture, leadership, church relationships, and budget/finance.
Why Does Your Church Exist?
Contextualization is at the very center of the church’s mission. Christian congregations must know their context as they live out the gospel of Jesus. In other words, church leaders should understand why their church exists and what their God-given mission really is. This is not some fringe part of a church’s existence but is central to its very purpose.
Moving Beyond the Labels!
Story after story unfolds and it becomes so abundantly clear that what makes for health and vitality is that in every new moment there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it!
Don’t Glaze Over—It is Important!
Healthy, vibrant churches have a high degree of correlation between their declared theology and their practiced theology.
Getting the Right Diagnosis
Congregational leaders can study congregational life, the decline of Christianity, and the aging of their church, yet they miss the most important thing of all.
Why One Minister Has Stayed
These are my top five reasons that I have stayed in ministry. This isn’t the final word, but I do think that these are things that every person in full-time ministry needs to some degree.
What Do You Think About What That Church is Doing?
I may or may not agree with everything every congregation or college in Abilene is doing, but I sure hope they all talk to everyone they can about Jesus.
What Really Matters?
Churches that live in the presence of the gospel are paying attention to spiritual vitality, passing and forming the Christian faith in people, and practicing hospitality to the world.
Ministers in Short Supply
I believe that resilient congregations, pursuing God’s purposes in the world, will find healthy and constructive ways to prepare, support, nurture and partner with ministers in the days to come.
Is it Time to Quit My Church?
For me, perhaps the saddest aspect of the pandemic has been the polarization and consequent sorting of churchgoers.
Too Many Prophets, Not Enough Pastors
The message of Jesus is prophetic enough as it is. Ministers must obviously retell that message in a faithful manner. That act of proclamation is prophetic enough on its own. Given the difficulty with hearing who Jesus was and was really about, the story doesn’t need much additional help beyond that.
Five Steps to Restore Your Church’s Vitality
Sometimes, a health crisis hits a church squarely in the face. If the church possesses enough self-awareness, it then faces the choice to either make dramatic changes or else permanently lose health and vitality.
Resource Highlight: What the Church Health Assessment Is Teaching Us About Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses
In this article, we look at member perceptions of leadership strengths and weaknesses in their congregation.
Resource Highlight: What the Church Health Assessment Is Teaching Us About Generational Differences
What contributes to the growing divide between older and younger generations' views of the church?
We Needed a Trusted Advisor
Knowledge provides opportunity to choose areas in which we desire greater health, where growth is possible and ministries can become more robust.
Elders in the Fish Tank
I’ve been working on an elder selection process at our church, and I’m struck by a startling truth: appointing elders is just like setting up a fish tank.
What Is Most Important?
These reasons for growth transcend simply being at the right place at the right time.