In our journey of “two steps” we have already seen the two steps a pastor must take (grow himself, build a team) and the two steps that only the congregation can take (face reality, create an embracing environment). So what’s left?

In the final installment of this series, we will discuss the two steps that the pastor and people must take together.

We have already seen the two steps a pastor must take to help the congregation get stronger – self-growth and build a team . But there are also two steps the people of the church must take to contribute to the same health journey. Many congregants know the frustration of a revolving door of pastors with their unique visions, ideas, and strategies. A frequent change in pastors can lead the congregation to forget that they, too, have some responsibility for what their church is becoming.

With thousands of churches plateaued or in decline, many of which are aging with the future growing more ominous each day, I’ve been searching for simple and powerful steps in a new direction. Many struggling churches are overwhelmed by a culture of “can’t.” They hear the ideas that turn around other congregations, but find most of these beyond their current abilities, resources, and people. There has to be a “can” out there with every church’s name on it.

There is!

INDIANA WOLVERINE-THE FANTASTIC FORCE WIELDING MUTANT GREEN SUPER SPIDERY HORNET-LIKE DARK KNIGHTED CAPTAIN IRONMAN—& THE DESPERATE SEARCH FOR THE HEROIC

Okay, so let’s admit it — we love superheroes.

In spite of our ever-growing knowledge and advancing technologies, we allow ourselves to be captivated by the over-the-top imaginations of those who look like us, but demonstrate a capacity or two that we can only dream of. Since Superman catapulted into our world in 1938, America has given three-quarters of a century to stories like his, and shows little sign of abandoning such fantasy. But what if these stories could be real? Better yet, what if such exploits could reveal YOU in that cape? Most of us would humbly chuckle at such a thought. We live more like Clark Kent and have yet to find any phone booth that could make us… well, you know. Besides, what’s a phone booth, anyway?

Sunday is a day like no other, for many of us. On this first day of the week, we do things quite differently than on other days. We start our day, not at work, play, or with a honey-do list, but gathering with others we don’t see all week to worship. Then it’s off to lunch and perhaps an afternoon nap. The day’s events look nothing like what is awaiting us on Monday.

And maybe that’s why it happens.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are challenging to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are challenging to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are challenging to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are challenging to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are difficult to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

In the work of the local church, a pastor will frequently come across people that are challenging to manage, much less lead. These are folks that have established unhealthy habits in relationships or have learned responses to conflict that have frequently proved destructive.

Who are these people and what can we do with them? Believe it or not, they come in several, easy-to-identify varieties and you can learn to manage them and even lead them to healthier behaviors.

Unfortunately, there are people who fill leadership roles in many churches who lack the character, discipleship development, or simple maturity to fill such a role. These folks, often chosen because of business expertise or family connection, become entrenched in such roles, much to the frustration of the other leaders on the team. So, how should you respond?

When I walked into Maranatha Worship Center in Wichita, Kansas seventeen years ago, there were many challenges, but I was fortunate to find a group of people ready to face those challenges. Soon I realized that while I was the 13th pastor in that church’s nearly nine decades of ministry life to that point, I was given a gift that perhaps none of my predecessors had received. People were ready, and even desperate, for change.

To achieve significant change in an organization, four questions must be answered the right way.

Entire books have been written on the subject of Guest Assimilation, so fully tackling such a huge issue in a short blog isn’t realistic. But most of us who lead local churches need to get the basics down so we can begin building our effort. Here’s four key rites of passage for the guest.

We’ve considered the kind of people that we need for a healthy church, but before we leave this discussion, we must consider how those people interact with each other–specifically, how they respond when difficulty arises.

Healthy churches are growing healthy people and there may be no place where that’s more evident than in the management of conflict.

As we have looked at the metrics that drive church health, we have seen the “nickels and noses” measures of local church life aren’t truly the best measures of church health. In fact, in the U.S. Assemblies of God today, a slightly higher percentage of large churches are plateaued or declining than are smaller churches. So if bigger isn’t always better, what is better?

Once again, we continue our look at the metrics that drive church health. As we have seen, the “nickels and noses” measures of local church life aren’t truly the best measures of church health. Just because something is bigger doesn’t mean it’s better. If bigger was always better, then doctors would stop bugging us about expanding waistlines.

But what is better? We’ve already looked at missional effectiveness and assimilation ratios. These have shown us how we’re really doing at doing the job Jesus gave us to do. How many of us does it take to reach someone with the Gospel each year? Are we maintaining contact with those converts long enough to get them into the waters of baptism?

Numbers are a somewhat controversial topic when it comes to the local church. Some chase them, believing the size of the crowd will speak volumes about their own effectiveness. Others simply insist that Jesus wants to reach everyone, so everyone is the goal. Still others focus their energies on smaller gatherings, searching for an intimacy the crowd can seldom achieve. Church isn’t a numbers game, and yet it really is.

Today, there seem to be more and more articles and books either defending or castigating local churches on the issue of their size. Some applaud the large church in such a way that the smaller church seems unnecessary and without a future, while others defend the merits of the small church and treat the larger congregation with contempt and suspicion. It seems we are determined to find a side to fight for somewhere between the house churches of Acts 2 and the massive modern churches in Southeast Asia.

Is this a fight worth fighting? Is there a “right” size for local congregations or is one better than the other? In this blog, Dr. Mike Clarensau expounds on the matter.

There are few things more devastating to a community and individual lives than conflicts at church. Somehow we expect difficult moments and relational challenges at work, at home, and in just about every other setting of our lives. But church? Well, that just shouldn’t be.

Okay, yes, we could argue that a local church is full of people too. Therefore, we should anticipate a few challenging relational moments, but much of the angst can be avoided if we would understand the differences between truth, convictions, and preferences.