Church Website = Church Growth

A friend of mine alerted me to this article entitled Churches with Websites are More Likely to Grow. It's an article definitely worth checking out.

Post-Easter Treats

If you're anything like me (a pastor) you were incredibly busy last week! And that's my excuse for not posting for a couple weeks... Heh heh...

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Easter! I came across a couple things that I wanted to pass on to you:

1. 10 Ways to Keep Me From Discovering Your Church - This blog post at Church Redone is a great tongue-in-cheek description of ten things churches should do keep people from finding them. Good for a laugh; better for some good insight.
2. Mr. Deity - Our Interim Pastor told me about this one. Really funny! Not always the best theology, but still good for a laugh. There are ten episodes so far, and I'm including my favorite right here. To see the rest of the episodes, click here.

Launch Conference, Part 11: Breaking Barriers for On-going Growth

Can you believe it?! This is my last post in my series from the Launch Conference!! It only took me a month and a half!

Drumroll, please.........


Breaking Barriers for On-going Growth

In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren explains the wrong and right questions to ask in dealing with growth barriers:

• The Wrong Question: How do I get my church to grow?
• The Right Question: What is keeping my church from growing?

The Top 3 Growth Barriers Every New Church Will Face

Growth Barrier #1: Space

• The 70% Rule: When a room is 70% full, it's full!
• At 80% your church is stangled and it will not grow.

Growth Barrier #2: Self-Development

• Are you growing?
• When the leader stops growing, the church stops growing.
• See John Maxwell's "Law of the Lid" (from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership)

Growth Barrier #3: Evangelism

• Keep the focus on evangelism hot!
• Teach on relational evangelism.
• Set an example by telling stories of how you've invited people to church.
• Kick off a new series with a special challenge for people to invite their friends.
• Hold a prayer walk or servant evangelism outreach.
• Talk to staff and volunteers about the importance of reaching friends.
• Read an evangelism or church-growth book with your staff.
• Develop training materials that will help your members invite their friends to church and share their faith.
• Ask someone who has experienced life change to share his or her testimony.

Overcoming Spiritual Barriers to Growth

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." --John 15:5

Abiding Area #1: God's Word

• Spend time in God's Word every day

Abiding Area #2: Prayer

Abiding Area #3: Fasting

• www.elmertowns.com - a great free resource on fasting

And that's it!! Hope these notes were helpful. Certainly, they were at times controversial--and even I don't agree with everything. But I think you can always learn something, even when you don't agree 100%.