Month: November 2013

A Growing Church is a Dying Church

I find this post powerful and thought-provoking even though I am not engaged in a traditional pastoral “call” and Tidelands isn’t even close to an established congregation. Nevertheless, there are two truths here, that we already know, but I find very powerful because we need to keep reminding ourselves of them as we wrestle with change: 1. Our Savior is Jesus (not the pastor, the budget, the programs, the building etc., etc.) 2. Following Jesus leads to the cross.

Hopping Hadrian's Wall

Whenever a congregation goes looking for a new pastor, the first question on their minds when the committee interviews a new candidate is: Will this pastor grow our church?

I’m going to go ahead and answer that question right now: No, she will not.

No amount of pastoral eloquence, organization, insightfulness, amicability, or charisma will take your congregation back to back to its glory days.

What then can your pastor do?  She can make your board meetings longer with prayer and Bible study.  She can mess with your sense of familiarity by changing the order of worship and the arrangement of the sanctuary.  She can play those strange new songs and forget about your favorite old hymns.  She can keep on playing those crusty old hymns instead of that hot new contemporary praise music.  She can bug you incessantly about more frequent celebration of Communion.  She can ignore your phone…

View original post 562 more words