For a limited time, you can download my book, Essential Church?, for free. Click here for more information. Since you can read it for free, let me know your thoughts about the dropout issue. Read more [...]

The latest statistical blurb from Pew Research is not surprising: men are less likely to have a religious affiliation than women. Much has been written on the lack of male representation in the congregation, but Pew gives us the exact percentage. Approximately one in five men (19.6%) is totally unaffiliated with a religion. What seems to be an anomaly, however, is that men are more likely than women to be attached to a religion other than Christianity. You can read the full article here; below is Read more [...]

LifeWay Research recently unveiled statistics on hot topics in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and where SBC pastors stand on these issues. Since I pastor an SBC church, the results interested me. One piece of the study I found fascinating involved a name change: Among Southern Baptist pastors, 7 percent strongly agreed – and another 20 percent somewhat agreed – with the statement, "Having the name ‘Southern’ in the ‘Southern Baptist Convention’ is a hindrance to the work of SBC Read more [...]

Dan Garland over at LifeWay recently compiled some material in an article on the importance of preaching. You can read the full article here. He included an excerpt from my book, Essential Church, which I’ve posted below. Is preaching still important? Yes! Even in today’s hyper-techno-driven conversational-wiki-culture, preaching is of the utmost importance. Of the several church-related or pastor-related issues noted by dropouts, preaching came up several times as a critical issue in retaining Read more [...]

An article in USA Today suggests that megachurches may be taking micro dips in attendance. While the number of megachurches has grown (from 600 in 2000 to more than 1,250 in 2005), recent data indicate attendance growth rates are slowing or have stalled. You can read the full article here. Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research, points to the lack of transformation as one of the possible catalysts for the decline: You can create a church that's big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, Read more [...]