Thom S. Rainer

Latest

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  Jun 15, 2021

  5 Ways designated giving can get your church in trouble

  Designated giving can be an incredible blessing for your church. It allows, for example, church members to give to such areas of passion as missions or facilities. But far too many churches are handling designated giving in ways that can get them in trouble.

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  May 27, 2021

  The once-a-month church goers are becoming more common

  Our information at this point is both early and anecdotal, but we are hearing from numerous pastors that many church members who were frequent in their church attendance are now once-a-monthers. This observation lends itself to many questions. Is this trend temporary, one that will improve as COVID concerns wane?

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  May 24, 2021

  What does the rapidly declining birthrate mean for churches?

  New provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the U.S. birthrate dropping for a sixth consecutive year. But look at these additional eye-opening facts: 

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  May 10, 2021

  5 common themes in churches with high pastor turnover

  More churches are losing pastors after only a brief tenure. Even more troubling, many of these same churches are seeing these patterns repeat themselves with each consecutive pastor.

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  May 2, 2021

  Why consumer church members leave your church

  “I’m not getting fed.” It’s one of the most common complaints of church members looking for excuses to leave a church.

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  Apr 19, 2021

  What megachurches, neighborhood churches and the multi-site mov't are telling us

  We often think of the three groups of churches as distinct categories. Megachurches are those congregations with an average worship attendance of 2,000 or more. Neighborhood churches are located in and serving a specific and, often, smaller demographic area. Multi-site churches have more than one location or venue.

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  Apr 13, 2021

  5 ways to make an aging congregation younger

  It is one of the top three requests for help we get at Church Answers: “Our church membership continues to get older. What do we do?” 

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  Apr 5, 2021

  Easter is over. Now what?

  You pastors and church leaders have been through so much. While others have likewise had severe challenges, pastors have truly had one challenge after another.

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  Mar 31, 2021

  10 realities for regathering churches

  Though we don’t have a precise picture of what churches will look like two years from now, we are at least getting some early indicators as the congregations regather.

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  Mar 23, 2021

  5 ways to reach those who stopped attending worship services

  It’s a challenge that has been around for decades, but it has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Members who were once active have stopped attending worship.