What is required to help congregations grow?
A study finds that pastors are more effective leaders when they spend time in Christian community with their peers, writes David L. Odom.
Growth & renewal
Most Recently Published
Scott Benhase: Praying for church growth among Episcopalians
Growing churches don’t focus on growth as such. They focus on mission.
Anthony B. Robinson: The pastor (and Jesus) as cage-fighter
Maybe the new, counter-intuitive formula for church growth is this: be a stark alternative to whatever the dominant culture offers.
James Howell: Church growth via luck
I grew a church big by being placed near a new housing development and bumping into a good-looking, gregarious couple that had just moved in.
Prince Raney Rivers: What comes after "contemporary" worship? The return of "traditional"
The usual story is of a pastor who staunches a church’s decline by introducing “contemporary” worship. But Macedonia Baptist in Pittsburgh capped its growth with a return to “traditional.”
Will Willimon: Anything worth doing for God is worth counting.
There may be churches that don’t care about growth. But these can’t possibly be Methodist.
Love God, love your neighbor
A new vision of a historic tradition. A Baptist church in Washington, D.C., with a history of commitment to social justice leverages its real estate assets to help revitalize the congregation and engage community partners.
Will Willimon: Churches can love their denominational heritage and also grow
Purpose-driven approaches to church growth say we should ditch the denominational label. This is exactly the wrong way to go.
Tom Arthur: How do I integrate a mainline heritage with church growth?
I became a Methodist on purpose. But church growth strategies want me to leave the label behind.
Michael Jinkins: The abba replies with a word
Last week we posted Tom Arthur's questions as a young pastor in a start-up congregation modeled on megachurches to his elder, Michael Jinkins, about his "Letters to New Pastors," which assumed a very different pastoral context. Here is Jinkins' reply.