You wrote a book, an article, or a blog post. You crafted a speech or talk. You wrote a song. You painted a picture. You created a message you want to share with a specific audience.
The days of pitching your idea to someone else to share are gone. The historical filters simply don’t exist anymore—at least the way they did in the past. Today, publishers expect you to promote your own book. Currently, the music industry is completely disrupted. And in-person conferences are diminishing, Read more [...]
A need for revitalization does not necessarily mean an entire church is unhealthy. Even the healthiest of established churches have at least one area requiring work, if not several. Sometimes the entire church needs revitalization. In other cases, a particular area of the church needs revitalization.
In fact, the majority of established churches could use some degree of revitalization. Around 65% of churches are in plateau or decline. This one statistic reveals close to 7 out of 10 churches Read more [...]
My journey into church consulting began almost twenty years ago as a teenager. My father would hand me stacks of congregational surveys and ask me to crunch numbers. The pay was minimal, but at least the job came with free rent.
What my father, Thom Rainer, founded in 1989 has changed over the years. When the company began, it was called Church Growth Visions. During his time at Southern Seminary, the company became Rainer Group. When he went to LifeWay Christian Resources, he handed Read more [...]
We made it! This week we released episode 100 on the Est.Church Podcast. I’ve had a ton of fun co-hosting with Micah and Josh the last couple of years, and I’m looking forward to the next 100 episodes. In this episode we share some of the highs and lows in each of our ministries. Thanks for listening!
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Follow us on Twitter: @estchurch, @jowiki, @micahfries, and @samrainer.
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All churches have leadership challenges, regardless of size. Small churches are not easier to lead than large churches. Large churches are not easier to grow than small churches. But they are different. When pastors move from one size church to another, they have to adapt.
One common pastoral transition is to move from a church of fifty congregants to a church of one hundred fifty. I won’t get into whether a pastor should make this move or not. Let’s assume the move is God’s will. Read more [...]
