Reading List

In his blog, 7 Ingredients for Caring for the Sick, Rick Warren urges us not to procrastinate or make excuses when caring for the sick, “The Christian approach to pain, suffering, and sickness is compassion, mercy, tenderness, and caring. Matthew records, When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary […]

In my ongoing reading and research of church revitalization and church turn around, there are five ideas that I keep bumping into.    Be committed to regular, ongoing prayer.  First off, church revitalization or health is God’s work.  It is a spiritual exercise more than it’s a programmatic series of steps.  We need to pray

“On November 6, 2010, I tweeted the most regrettable tweet of my mediocre social media career. In anticipation of the holiday season, I decided to weigh in on hospitality. The tweet was a flawless blend of selective memory and self-righteousness, designed to heap condemnation on the heads of my followers under the guise of offering

“Jesus gave His people a clear mission—to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). For this reason, a local church exists to make disciples. C.S. Lewis challenged: The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, everything else is simply a

Dennis Camplin recently sent me a link to Karl Vaters’ article, “Why Don’t Small Churches Grow? (Actually, They Do),” and I thought it would be a good Church Health share. “The presumption that small churches don’t grow is false.  Small churches do grow. Some grow numerically. Most grow spiritually. Many grow in both ways.  It’s just

The last in this series from Karl Vater’s, Expanding the Sweet Spot for a Healthy Church Turnaround, focuses on knowing and expanding the zone where the hearts of the pastor and congregation meet up with God’s heart is essential for a successful church turnaround.

“Leading an existing church through a turnaround from unhealthy to healthy is one of the hardest tasks a pastor will ever be called to do. And it’s even harder when we’re trying to do so without understanding some basic principles needed for a successful turnaround to take place. In The 4 Most Overlooked Realities of a

“There are some misunderstandings on this subject. What one person means by a church turnaround might be completely different from what another person means. So here are three things I don’t mean when I talk about a church turnaround.” “3 Suprising Misunderstandings About Church Turnarounds“, is the first in a series of three articles by

“Churches that stop growing almost always have lost their heart for outsiders. Even if many say they’re still passionate about reaching new people, their actions deny their intentions. So how do you know whether your church is focused on insiders?” Well for a start, read Carey Nieuwhof’s “5 Tell-Tale Signs Your Congregation Is Insider-Focused.”

“All work—paid and unpaid—is good, but it needs to be boundaried by the practice of Sabbath. The problem with too many leaders is that we allow our work to trespass on every other area of life, disrupting the balanced rhythm of work and rest God created for our good. Sabbath is a 24-hour block of