Thom S. Rainer
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5 reasons your current church attendance is the new normal
I am hopeful that you will take your current attendance as your base, or new normal, and seek God’s power to grow the church from there. I see this new normal as an opportunity rather than a defeat.
4 success stories from churches that made a commitment to know their communities better
They found ways to reach and mentor many of these young mothers. Eventually, the moms started coming to the church. And, of course, their kids came as well. The church is now thriving with kids and young adults.
15 lessons I’ve learned from 40 years in ministry
For sure, I’ve made many mistakes. I hope I’ve learned from these mistakes more than I have repeated them. In the discussion at Church Answers, I named eight of the lessons. For this article, I added a few more.
7 changes pastors plan to make in 2022
We compiled seven critical changes pastors are planning from our ongoing conversations with pastors at Church Answers. The list is not comprehensive. It does represent, however, the most frequent changes pastors have told us they plan to make.
Decline of streaming worship services: 5 observations
One of the reasons millions of church members attend in-person services is because it represents a healthy habit they have developed.
5 things church leaders wish they'd done differently during COVID
As the church regathered, they were better prepared to reach and minister to the community where God has placed them.
9 realities your church will face in 2022
Presuming we get on the other side of COVID by the end of this year, the picture for churches in America is mostly clear. Of course, none of us can know the future with certainty, and another COVID spike could change the conversation dramatically.
Numbers do matter: 10 signs of a disturbing trend in churches
We are in a historical cycle in the evangelical world where the mood is to disparage counting, attendance, and other numerical metrics. Consequently, we are in danger of losing accountability that is inherent with the following numbers.
12 traits of churches doing well during the pandemic
So, what are these churches doing? As I examined the data and traits of healthy churches, I saw twelve recurring themes. To be clear, many churches are doing some of these items, but the churches I examined are doing all twelve items.
7 Questions we did not hear from pastors 5 years ago
I looked over our community known as Church Answers Central and picked seven recent questions we likely did not hear five years ago. They are true indicators that the times are truly changing.