Thom S. Rainer

Thom S. Rainer

Op-ed Contributor

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  • Ten Things I've Learned About Pastors in Two Years

    Ten Things I've Learned About Pastors in Two Years

    Though this blog is four years old, I did not get serious about the pace of my blogging until about two years ago. If you have spent any time at my blog, you know that I devote a lot of my writings to local church matters in general, and to pastors specifically.

  • When Christians Fire Christians

    When Christians Fire Christians

    I feel like I'm walking on metaphorical eggshells with this blogpost. My challenge is that I am asked about this issue almost as much as any other. The question typically comes from a pastor or other church leader, but it could come from a leader of another Christian organization. Should we as Christians fire other Christians who work in our organization?

  • 12 Biggest Challenges Pastors and Church Staff Face

    12 Biggest Challenges Pastors and Church Staff Face

    What is fascinating, if not discouraging, about this survey is that virtually all of the challenges noted by these pastors and staff were internal challenges. It appears that many of our churches in America are not effective conduits of the gospel because the members spend so much energy concerned about their own needs and preferences.

  • How Much Time Do Pastors Spend Preparing a Sermon?

    How Much Time Do Pastors Spend Preparing a Sermon?

    Most church members give little thought to the amount of time it takes a pastor to prepare each sermon. In reality, sermon preparation is a large portion of a pastor's workweek. Unfortunately, this work is invisible to typical church members.

  • Four Ways Churches Break Attendance Barriers

    Four Ways Churches Break Attendance Barriers

    After 25 years of consulting and researching local congregations, I have found four common approaches churches take to break attendance barriers regardless of size. There are certainly more than four possibilities, but allow me to evaluate these four more common approaches.

  • How Long Does a Pastor Preach?

    How Long Does a Pastor Preach?

    Preaching is central to the worship services in most churches. Indeed most services are built around the message. The sermon is critical to the life and health of a church.

  • What Do Non-Christians Really Think of Us?

    What Do Non-Christians Really Think of Us?

    Christians look at everyone else as if they've got targets painted on their foreheads. Nobody likes being hunted down or treated like someone else's project. Love does not seek to create clones of itself. Selfishness does.

  • What People Really Think About Southern Baptists

    What People Really Think About Southern Baptists

    I arrived on Saturday, so I have already had an opportunity to interact with a number of people. Most of those I have spoken with are here for the SBC. A few of them, though, work in Houston. I would like to share summary comments from two of them.

  • Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about Their Children

    Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about Their Children

    I was serving a church in St. Petersburg, Florida, when it hit me hard. One of my young children had playfully fallen on the floor in the foyer after a worship service. A deacon in the church came up to me and spoke forcefully: "You need to tell your kid to get up. Pastors' children aren't supposed to act that way."

  • Only 15 Percent of Millenials, Born 1980 to 2000, Are Christians

    Only 15 Percent of Millenials, Born 1980 to 2000, Are Christians

    My burden to see struggling churches become turnaround churches grows daily. There are an estimated 100,000 churches in North America that would be deemed terminal by most pundits. There are another 100,000 to 200,000 that are very sick and could soon be on the deathwatch.

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