Here are 13 common mistakes Senior Pastors make that contribute to sluggish growth, or even decline. Fix these and watch what happens. 1. You Are Afraid To Fire Staff Bill Hybels once said that the time to fire someone is the first time you think of it. In other words, once you’re convinced they're not the right person for the job, you either have to move them to another seat … [Read more...]
Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups
As Senior Pastors, one of the most important questions we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis is, "Are we actually making disciples?" We must evaluate everything we do with that question in mind. No program or initiative can be kept if it does fulfill the objective of making more and better disciples. Asking this question, and taking action, can be quite painful. But it's … [Read more...]
The #1 Secret Of Church Growth
When I was pastoring a church that took off like a rocket from 150 to 150 in four years, I wrote every pastor of a growing vibrant congregation over 1,000 I could find. I asked them for their best advice on how I could lead my congregation to become a healthy, growing, outreach-focused church like theirs. I purposely sought out people who had led their church through my exact … [Read more...]
4 Reasons Why Increasing Your Easter Attendance Matters
If there's one thing we know about Easter, it's that many Senior Pastors go to great lengths to mobilize their congregations to get new people to attend on this day. Many think this is a wasted attempt to pander to "Chreasters." I completely disagree. Increasing your Easter attendance is important, but not for reasons commonly thought. Here are four reasons why doing … [Read more...]
5 Steps To Writing Excellent Sermons In 8 Hours Or Less
If you're going to lead your church through the next growth barrier, you can't squander the most precious personal resource you have: time. This includes wasting time on unfocused sermon preparation. I’ve always been a bit suspicious of how long Senior Pastors spend in sermon preparation anyway. The leaders I run in circles with throw around numbers like 15 to 20 hours a … [Read more...]
4 Changes Senior Pastors Must Make To Break The 200 Barrier
If your church is under 200 in attendance every weekend, you’re in good company. Every study out there suggests that more than half of the 300,000 churches in the United States are in the same boat. The bad news is that the 200 barrier is where congregational and pastoral dreams for evangelistic impact come to die. The challenges that stand before you are extraordinary, but … [Read more...]
You Must Believe You Can Lead Your Church To Grow
Not only must you believe your church can grow in order for it to happen, you must believe you are the person to make that happen. The problem is it is a whole lot easier for we Senior Pastors to believe that our churches will make it through the desert to see the Promised Land than it is to believe that we'll be the ones to get them there. For instance, it snowed again this … [Read more...]
You Must Believe Your Church Can Grow
Whether you’re trying to break 100 or 1,000, you have to believe three things before your church will go anywhere. The first is the hardest: You must believe your church can grow. Like seriously-deep-down-inside believe it can happen. Trust me, if you don’t believe that it can, it won’t. I know that from first-hand experience. The "Yeah, But" Syndrome A strange thing happens … [Read more...]
The Painful Cost Of Unity
Unity within a church is the indispensable key to accomplishing the Great Commission. Show me a church with tremendous talent, resources and potential, but no unity, and I’ll show you a church that is already dead in its tracks. But show me a unified church with limited resources and significant challenges, and I’ll show you a church that will find a way to win every … [Read more...]
Should You Start A Saturday Night Service?
A number of years ago a friend emailed me and asked my advice about whether or not I thought his church should start a Saturday night service. Lots of pastors routinely weigh whether or not this is a good move, and rightly so. I thought I'd share what I told him. It's the same advice I share with Senior Pastors I coach: Vince, Here was our experience in a nutshell: 1. We … [Read more...]
10 Changes That Will Dramatically Increase Giving In Your Church
Simply put: It takes money to lead a church to experience dynamic spiritual and numerical growth. However, we Senior Pastors have to approach this topic with the right heart (to serve our people rather than manipulate them) and with the right motivation (to help our people become financially free so they can collectively support the Great Commission worldwide). Without … [Read more...]
6 Reasons You SHOULD Preach Other Pastor’s Sermons
The secret to leading a growing church is steal, steal, steal. If you want to lead your church in dynamic spiritual and numerical growth you don’t have time to reinvent the wheel each time you recognize that something original needs to be created in your church. That’s why the most Christ honoring thing you can do is be on the lookout for great ideas that you can take and … [Read more...]
Things To Consider When Adding A Second Service
Recently my friend Jonathan, a pastor in New York City, asked me to share any advice I had on going to two services. I've led two churches to add a second service, both successfully. Based on my experience here's what I shared with him... 1. I cast vision about going to two services constantly for one year before launching them, so much that everyone got sick of me talking … [Read more...]
How To Succeed In Ministry Without Self-Promotion
If you feel like you're stuck in a dead-end ministry situation, where options are limited and doors aren't opening, be patient. Before I turned 40… I purposely turned down almost every speaking request I received. I purposely didn’t publish a book. I purposely didn’t have a blog or podcast. I purposely never went on a radio or TV program. I purposely never preached a … [Read more...]
12 Reasons I’ll Unfollow You On Twitter
I really enjoy connecting with other Senior Pastors on Twitter. But it’s been frustrating as well. Since my interest has been developing genuine connections with people, and not buying or selling something, I’ve found that I’ve had to wade through a lot of, well, excrement, to find like-minded pastors who are sincere, actually use the tool, are willing to collaborate, and take … [Read more...]
Why You Shouldn’t Join The Missional Church Fad
An issue greatly distracting Senior Pastors right now is the giddy embrace of the “missional church” fad. At CCV we just want to be the church, period. We are definitely attractional. But we are definitely missional. Not because we have “bought into a new paradigm of doing ministry,” but because that’s what the church does (in addition to dozens and dozens of others … [Read more...]
The Myth of the Happy Church-Growth Pastor
In the early years of starting Christ's Church of the Valley I was asked to write an article for a ministry magazine. At the time of writing I was starting more services, hiring more staff, assimilating more people, and putting out more fires than what seemed humanly possible. The editor told me to write about anything I wanted, so I sat down and just started writing, and … [Read more...]
The 3 Most Helpful Questions I Was Asked In Therapy
I’ve been to therapy twice in my life. The first time was when our new church was in the middle of its second building project in five years and the economic downturn hit. I was making preparations to quit the ministry, so I spent a week at a place called The Blessing Ranch in Colorado (think intensive outpatient care for pastors) to explore my options with Dr. John Walker. … [Read more...]
My Monthly Trip to the Monastery
I’ve found that if I don’t get away about once a month and “clear my head” by refocusing and reprioritizing what’s on my plate, I go nuts. I mean that. With all the demands I put on myself as well as the things thrown at me by others, I’ve learned that if I ignore this monthly spiritual discipline I tend to become distracted, eat way too much Mandarin Orange chicken, and begin … [Read more...]
The Difference Between A Good Sermon And A Great Sermon
Recently I spent the better part of a week going through 10 years of sermons – re-labeling, re-organizing, and re-categorizing them so I could share them with my staff on Dropbox. It was enlightening to say the least. I saw larger patterns of things I was proud of, and not so proud of. Here’s a list of things I took note of that I wanted to change, continue, or forever expunge … [Read more...]
