Some of my favorite conversations are the most random. I hear from the woman cutting my hair that she is searching for a church where she can receive help for her spiritual journey. As I listen to a guy in a hospital waiting room, he mentions that he wants to know more about Christianity. My real estate agent has a desire to visit my church simply because I invited her. Receptive people are everywhere. They are searching, and they want to know more about what a real faith looks like. As I congenially Read more [...]

Tony Morgan and Outreach Magazine are partnering to search for innovations in the church. I'm sure that some great stories are out there about churches using innovation to reach more people for Christ. Here's your chance to have these stories told. You can help this search for innovation by going to his site and completing this brief survey. And if you want to share some thoughts about innovation in the church here, please feel free to comment. Read more [...]

I do not know of a formal study supporting the claim, but it’s no secret that Twitter and Facebook are addictive. I utilize both. And why most people care to hear about my random, 140-character-life-snippets is baffling to me. When I started Twittering, however, I had no idea how much fun I would have tracking my family and close friends. What began as an attempt at networking morphed into an unexpected daily connection to my mom, dad, brother, cousin, and uncle. It’s a new kind of family time. A Read more [...]

The Wall Street Journal published this article on Friday about the rise of professional mystery workers. Since the secret-shopper technique used by marketing firms has become popular, churches are now evaluating themselves based upon these professional mystery worshippers. The WSJ article expounds upon this practice: The rise of these services has been buoyed by the growth of the secret-shopper industry. There are roughly one million secret shoppers in the U.S., according to the Mystery Shopping Read more [...]

Ed Stetzer was recently interviewed by Joe Thorn over at the sub-text. His comments and insight will resonate with many church leaders. You can read the full interview here. I particularly appreciate Stetzer’s comments on some common mistakes churches make in the suburbs: What are some common mistakes churches in the suburbs make? I think there are probably several. First, they assume that nice shiny clean people have nice shiny clean lives. When you work in an urban context, you can sometimes Read more [...]