It may say Halloween on the calendar, but today we celebrate the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, marked by Martin Luther’s famous nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church in 1517. (I suppose you could dress up like Martin Luther if you wanted to – but may not be the biggest hit at your costume … Read More
The Power of a BIG DAY (Weekend Sale)
It’s Friday and I’m in the office getting ready for Sunday. No, not two days from now (we’re already set for THIS Sunday). I’m in the office getting ready for our next BIG DAY at The Journey! A Big Day is defined as: an all-out push toward a single Sunday for the purpose of breaking the next growth barrier and setting an attendance record … Read More
THE KEY to Church Growth
Today’s guest post comes to us from author, seminar speaker and the world’s premier bible lesson writer, Josh Hunt. Here he examines the assumption that there is a “key” to church growth. Jim Collins has a helpful metaphor on why this assumption is wrong. He calls it the flywheel principle. Imagine a huge flywheel. It weighs 5000 pounds. It is 2 feet … Read More
How Souls are Won – A Saturday Quote
“Let eloquence be flung to the dogs rather than souls be lost. What we want is to win souls. They are not won by flowery speeches.” – Charles H. Spurgeon
Q&A: The 5:100 ratio – A powerful evangelism measurement tool
This is Kerrick Thomas – and for the last 12 years I’ve served alongside of Nelson Searcy as Executive Pastor of The Journey Church. I’m guest blogging today and wanted to share a question I received from a Ministry Director from Dover, Ohio. Q: “I follow you quite a bit. I’ve read Activate and Fusion. Both great books! Thanks for all the … Read More
5 Points of Encouragement for Evangelism
This week in gearing up for fall growth, we’ve been focusing on evangelism. Today we’ll take a look at this mission through the eyes of our people. This guest post from KC McCauley, contributor to The Christian Post, addresses the intimidation factor that our members may feel in sharing the Good News and provides 5 ways we can help them move … Read More
Back to School, Back to Church – How to Kick-Start Fall Growth
If you invite them, they will come. It’s true that most of the unchurched in your communities are just waiting for their invitation. A recent study showed that more than nine of out 10 of the unchurched said they would come to church if they were invited. But the question is: How many of your members are inviting others to church? The answer is … Read More
7 Factors that are Hindering Evangelism in Churches
Evangelism is one of the key systems of healthy churches. With a goal toward revitalization, in today’s guest post Dr. Thom Rainer encourages you to “look in the mirror” when it comes to measuring the evangelistic temperature of your church. (You have an opportunity to meet Dr. Rainer in a couple of months – for details see the P.S.) There … Read More
God Wants His Church to Grow
“God wants His church to grow.” This idea from Donald McGavran was pretty profound then. In some seminaries, in some places today that’s still very profound. When I teach the Growth Theories Workshop, I still have some people who are blown away by this idea that the church is expected to grow, and there should be an expectation that people are saved. … Read More
Why Does the Church Growth Movement Matter Today?
More than likely, you are familiar with some general concept or idea of what we call the “Modern Day Church Growth Movement.” Now, I would argue that this is not new. The history of church growth goes all the way back to the Great Commission, to the early church. But in the modern day times when we think about the Church Growth Movement … Read More