Introduction

Pastor Bill Hybels once said the local church is the hope of the world. While I believe Jesus is the real hope of the world, the local church is a close second. A healthy and thriving church can provide hope and support during difficult times, such as the coming recession.

Your church can provide hope and support to those who are struggling and positions itself as a place to find comfort and community.

Pastor, you need to be prepared to lead people through these tough times by preaching hope, being humble, and reaching out to hurting communities.

What is a recession and how can it affect your church?

A recession is a period of time when the economy is in a state of continuous decline. This can affect your church in a number of ways. First, if people are struggling financially, they may be less likely to attend church. Second, the church may experience decreased giving from its members. Finally, the recession may lead to layoffs or budget cuts, which could...

When someone new visits your church, they need to feel welcomed and comfortable. Here are a few ways you can improve their experience:

Make sure guest parking is available and easy to spot right away.

A parking attendant can help make a church parking lot more welcoming for guests. By directing traffic and providing information about available parking spots, a parking attendant can help guests find a spot quickly and easily.

This can be especially helpful on Sundays when church parking lots are often crowded. In addition, a parking attendant can help to ensure that guests have a positive experience by providing directions or answering any questions they may have.

As a result, having a parking attendant in a church parking lot can be a valuable way to show guests that they are welcome and appreciated.

Make sure there is someone at the door to greet guests as they arrive.

Church door greeters play an important role in making guests feel welcome. When someone new comes through the...

Church growth is a vital part of any ministry. When church attendance starts to dwindle, it can be easy to become discouraged. In this blog post, we will be discussing seven mistakes that pastors are making that are causing their church growth to stagnate. We hope that this information will help you avoid these mistakes and see your church grow.

Your church isn't doing anything to reach the lost.

The church is supposed to be a beacon of hope in the community, but if it's not doing anything to reach out to those who are lost, then it's not fulfilling its purpose.

There are many reasons why churches don't reach out to the lost, but the most common one is that they are too internally focused.

Yes, make your church great for your members, that is important. However, it is just as important to reach out to the hurting and broken people in your community and make a difference by showing them the love of Christ.

If your church isn't doing anything to reach the lost, then it's time to start...

Summertime is a great time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather, but it can also be a difficult time for churches. Many people are on vacation and not as likely to attend church services. In this blog post, we will discuss some ways that you can encourage more visitors to attend church during the summer months.

One way to encourage church attendance during the summer is by having special events. This could include a picnic, an outdoor service, or a family worship night in the park. If you have an event that is geared towards families, this can be a great way to get more people to attend church.

You can also use the summer months as an opportunity to reach out to your community. There are likely many people who are looking for a church home, and if you reach out to them, they may be more likely to visit your church.

Another way to encourage church attendance is by making sure that your church is visible in the community. This could include flyers or poster distribution, handing out...

Over the last 10-15 years, my partner in 24toDouble, Pastor Jerry Lawson, has learned a TON about the ins and outs of growing a church.

One thing I learned from Jerry is that healthy things grow.

Now before we get started, let’s get one thing out of the way…

The concept of “church growth” at times connotes comparison. And I don’t think that a goal of growth, with comparison at its heart, is the right approach here.

When we begin to think about growth, and in order to start on the right foot, let’s think instead of church health.

Because healthy things… grow.

In order to have a healthy church, you have to have a healthy culture. Including…

A Healthy Staff –
Whether paid or volunteer, the people who do ministry at your church must be healthy.

When Jerry started out at Daystar Church, he had ONE employee. Now Daystar employs 50 staff over multiple campuses. And they still have way more volunteers than employees.

A healthy church...

When you give it your all on your outreach efforts, only to see that new visitors don’t translate into steady church growth, ask yourself the question…

Are we making follow-up a priority?

I mean, really making follow-up a priority.

You know where your priorities lie—not so much on the amount of effort put into something—but what systems you have applied to something.

What is your church’s follow-up system?

Before we go too far into making you feel completely inadequate, let’s nail down the basic essentials for any church follow-up system to be truly effective…

Basically, you need 2 processes (nailed down) and 5 tools.

Processes

First, you need a Follow-Up Process.

Basically, this is a one-page flowchart that shows what happens when someone enters your church for the first time.

This covers everything from how guest information is collected, where it’s entered, WHO is responsible for (what type of) follow-up, and what happens...

Listen to Pastor Jerry Lawson of Daystar Church share the power of WHY, and exactly why communicating WHY is so important when it comes to getting people to change.

Just a few short years ago, Jerry Lawson found himself as the new pastor of a 60-year old church with sixty 60-year olds.

Today, Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama is a multisite church with over 3,500 worshiping every weekend.

What did he learn in his journey of massive church growth that made all the difference? …

Learn more about it here.

We recently had the privilege of hosting a workshop with Pastor Jerry Lawson, pastor of Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama.

Jerry is also the man behind 24toDouble, a whole church discipleship model that has helped more than 2,000 churches learn how to double their church in 24 months or less.

What started as a 60-year old church with sixty 60-year olds (in a town of 491 people) has since blossomed into a multi-site church with 5,000-weekend worshipers.

Jerry has learned how to overcome obstacles to church growth.

In this workshop, he shared seven that are most common to churches.

And it’s critical to know these. Friend, we are in a war.

Did you know that 100 years ago that 80% of Americans attended church?

But then, by World War 2, that number shrank to just 40%, meaning the church in America had already lost HALF the population in one generation.

Today, the most accurate statistical efforts tell us that about 20% of the population goes to church.

That’s right....