CP Author

One of the most significant trends in American churches the past 25 years has been the migration of people from smaller churches to larger churches.

• 03/09/2012
• 29 Comments
• Tag: Megachurch

The expectations of a pastor are always high. Most are expected to omnipresent, omniscience, and always energetic and ready to serve. But these men are people with their own limitations and their own struggles.

• 03/05/2012
• 8 Comments
• Tag: Pastors

The year was 1985. My third son, Jess, was five months old. His older brothers, Sam and Art, were five and three years old respectively. My wife, Nellie Jo, and I were exhausted. She, in particular, seemed never to rest with the demands of being a st..

• 02/12/2012
• 5 Comments
• Tag: Family issues

The Millennial Christians are relatively few in number. Again, I am reticent to estimate with any claim of precision, but I have suggested that the number of Christians in this generation is 15 percent of their total.

• 02/07/2012
• 9 Comments
• Tag: Youth

I am a church member. I will seek to be a source of unity in the church. I know there are no perfect pastors, staff, or other church members. But neither am I.

• 02/04/2012
• 4 Comments
• Tag:

What then are the common characteristics of leaders who fail? They fail to dream.

• 01/21/2012
• 1 Comments
• Tag:

Healthy churches have pastors who love the members. And the churches allow their pastors to spend time in sermon preparation.

• 01/06/2012
• 1 Comments
• Tag:

The churches have a high view of Scripture. The members are evangelistically intentional.

• 01/05/2012
• 6 Comments
• Tag:

I hurt deeply for those who see empty places at their meals for Christmas. I hurt for those who have gone through the agony of a divorce.

• 12/12/2011
• 3 Comments
• Tag:

I am a bit reluctant to articulate the characteristics of effective church leaders for fear that some may take the information and reduce it to a neat, quick-fix formula, and that others may see this approach as human-centered

• 11/22/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: Leadership

The names of the churches stare back at me. There are 876 churches. Most of them have their names written in my books. The names I am seeing right now are churches that are no longer great. They have fallen from the lists. They no longer meet the cri..

• 11/09/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag:

Almost twenty years ago, I began to note that the tenure of a pastor often follows a predictable pattern. Now, almost two decades later, I still see many of the same patterns

• 11/05/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: Pastors

What were some of the warning signs? The church is experiencing conflict over issues of budgets and building. Corporate prayer is minimized.

• 10/26/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag:

On too many occasions, I have seen governmental agencies and zoning commissions deny churches needed permission to expand for no apparent reason. And too many times, I am left figuratively speechless with the adversarial attitudes I see against Chris..

• 10/20/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: Church State

Courageous is indeed a great movie. But, even more, it could very well prove to be the beginning of a movement.

• 10/05/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag:

They spend time in prayer and the Word. They have longer tenure in the church.

• 10/01/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: Pastors

It was on the day after, September 12, that I begin to hear the questions. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why did God let such evil people take the lives of so many innocent victims?

• 09/12/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: September 11

There are no longer consistent norms for the portion of a church budget that should be dedicated to personnel costs. Each church has a different rationale or contextualized reasons for the inclusion or exclusion of specific paid staff.

• 09/08/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag:

Many leaders fail simply because they refuse to make a decision. Some insist on more and more information.

• 09/04/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag:

The reports can be discouraging. The statistics can be demoralizing. The trends can be disheartening. Year after year we hear about the dismal state of American congregations.

• 08/12/2011
• 0 Comments
• Tag: