One In Jesus

In re-reading these posts on Church Growth, it occurred to me that I’d opened — but not answered — the central question: Just how do elders get in the way?

Let me begin by saying that elders aren’t alone in this. We normally all conspire together with the staff and the members to keep on doing things the same way that didn’t work last year and isn’t going to work next year. But the elders are particularly in the way because, in a Church of Christ, nothing changes except through the elders. Continue reading →

Just for fun, you know, I thought I’d take a look at the latest Abilene Christian College data on preacher salaries in the Churches of Christ. They gather data each year to help churches know what to pay and preachers know what to expect. It’s interesting stuff.

And the data tells us a lot about ourselves. It may be a step in overcoming some of our problems. Continue reading →

Let me start by saying that I’m very, very happy with our preacher. This is a post for churches looking to hire a preacher — and for Christian college presidents — and for churches who already have an excellent preacher.

Point 1: Although the literature often omits this, it’s very likely true that the first requirement for church growth, especially for a large church, is a really good preacher.

Now, as an elder in the Churches of Christ, I’m not supposed to say this. After all, in our theology, a preacher is a hired hand, working under the oversight of the elders. And only elders and deacons get to be leaders. We therefore don’t like to talk about preachers as great leaders. They’re just supposed to be great speakers. Continue reading →

I’ve been reading Beyond Megachurch Myths by Scott Thumma and Dave Travis. I was flipping through the channels, looking for something appropriately manly, like ESPN, and saw Thumma speaking on CPAN2 about his new book. He had a lot of interesting things to say, and so I got on Amazon and ordered the book. I’m still reading it.

The book is a study of “megachurches,” defined as Protestant congregations with typical attendance of over 2,000 people.

Now, my own church has attendance in the 600 to 700 range, so we are far from being a megachurch. But then, it’s not that hard to imagine us growing to that size. If we were to grow at a rate of 5% per year, it would only take 20 to 25 years to get there. Continue reading →