By: Carey Nieuwhof

As a leader, you’ve likely looked back at a decision another church or organization made and thought to yourself, “how could they not have seen how bad that decision was…I mean, didn’t anybody realize where that would take them?”

And of course, the answer is no…they didn’t see it.

Which is the point of this post.

Five years from now, what will declining churches have done that pushed them into…well, decline? Because right now, their leaders are making the decisions that will lead them there.

Right now, in the midst of all this uncertainty, you’re making decisions that will shape the future. We all are.

How do you know you’re making the right ones?

As you look back over the last few decades, it’s not that hard to see that churches who refused to change, embraced blended worship (out of fear of offending people), didn’t make tough staffing calls, failed to plan for timely succession, got weird theologically or made a myriad of other unfortunate decisions generally faced decline rather than growth as their dominant story.

While the future is impossible to predict accurately and anyone who tells you they know where it’s all going is either lying or deluded, there are often clues as to what’s ahead.

So very tentatively—and with an openness to being very wrong—I want to offer 7 new characteristics of churches that will be in decline five years from now. I say new, because all of these factors are tied to real-time decision making that’s happening in light of the coronavirus, meaningful cultural change and the dislocation that has become life today.

Again, five years from now, we’ll see how accurate these were, but for those of us making decisions today, here are the characteristics and patterns to watch.

The decisions you make today impact the future you lead live tomorrow.

So, with all that said, here are 7 new characteristics of churches that will I suggest lead them into decline in the future.

The decisions you make today impact the future you lead live tomorrow.

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1. The leaders bet everything on a physical return to church

Is physical church coming back? You bet it is. As long as there are people, people are going to want to connect in person.

Is in-person church the whole future?

Well, that’s a very different question.

These are hardly perfect conditions, but the few leaders who are seeing 70% of their pre-COVID attendance back at in-person services are declaring victory.

I don’t want to rain on any parades, but when did reaching 30% fewer people became a win when there’s a world desperately in need of the Gospel?

I’m talking to a growing number of leaders who are seeing 20-40% as the new normal for physical attendance, and while that might indeed improve in the future, there’s also growing talk of sizable groups of people who have just disappeared from church altogether.

Indeed, according to the Barna Group, the number of pastors who believe their church will grow after the pandemic has dipped to 13% from a high of 34%. 33% see it being the same, and fully 49% believe it will be lower.

If that’s the case, churches that invest all of their time and energy on in-person gathering may not see the impact and reach they’re hoping for.

I outline more reasons I’m wary of wagering your entire future on in-person facility-based gatherings in these posts.

When Your Church Re-Opens, What Will Be Left and Who Will Still Come?

In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and the Emerging Trap of Doing Nothing Well

When did reaching 30% fewer people became a win when there’s a world desperately in need of the Gospel?

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2. Success was measured by the number of people who attend physical locations

What you measure as a leader influences what you value.

For years, pastors (for better or worse) measure success by the number of people who attend weekend worship.

If that was a problem in the last, it will be an even bigger problem in the future.

If people engage with church differently via digital, home-based or community-based gatherings, the leader who defines success by worship attendance alone in a church building or campus will grow more and more frustrated.

What you measure as a leader influences what you value.

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So pick some new metrics. Measure what’s really happening online (this will help you do that). Count engagement. Figure out how to measure spiritual growth. Look at your actual impact, not just pure attendance numbers.

Although written pre-COVID, here a post that outlines 7 ways to grow engagement.

If growing churches in the future will be digital organizations with physical locations, then leaders who focus only on physical locations will see a tougher future.

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3. Online ministry is viewed as an afterthought or lesser form

It’s not that most churches won’t have an online ministry. Almost every church does now thanks to COVID-19.

It’s just that in the future, declining churches will see it either an afterthought or a lesser form of ministry.

I know there are genuine theological questions that have yet to be answered. And we’ll figure that out as we go along. If that statement bothers you, just read the New Testament. The Gospel moves forward, and the leaders figure out what it means in real-time.

It’s not that most churches won’t have an online ministry. It’s just that, in the future, declining churches in the future will see it either an afterthought or a lesser form of ministry.

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Meanwhile, people keep moving on.  People are living more digitally than ever, and most businesses continue to rethink their strategy in light of it, reducing physical locations and pivoting to online.

You can see online church as an obstacle or an opportunity. And everyone you want to reach is online, that makes it a pretty big opportunity.

Again, physical gathering will always plan a role in the future of the church, but wise churches will realize there is much opportunity beyond that.

You can see online church as an obstacle or an opportunity. And everyone you want to reach is online, that makes it a pretty big opportunity.

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4. All the feedback comes from their echo chamber

Leaders who are looking for ways to confirm their biases have never had more ways to do it.

Social media is designed to give you more of what you want, and, apparently, we love it that way.

So many pastors feel the pressure from their members to reopen and reopen fully. And that’s predictable. People always crave what they’ve known. In fact, even when it comes to food, you’ve never craved anything you haven’t tried.

You’ll also be highly motivated to return to the way things were because that’s what you know. And, as I shared here, those who succeeded most in the past are most motivated to preserve the past or recreate it.

All of which puts leaders at risk of listening only to their echo chamber.

Church people are going to love in-person worship because that’s all they’ve know. You are going to love it because that’s basically what you’ve led.

You are naturally surrounded by people who will tell you you’re right, that others are wrong, and the algorithm that controls your social media feed will automatically find you more content that agrees with you. Here’s the irony: in an online culture run by algorithms, you don’t actually get more choices, you get fewer.

In an online culture run by algorithms, you don’t actually get more choices, you get fewer.

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Wise leaders expose themselves to different voices: voices: outside voices, younger voices, varying opinions and voices beyond their field or discipline.

Different opinions lead to better decisions.

Leaders of declining churches surround themselves with like-minded voices and influences,  convinced they’re right and everyone else is wrong.

Leaders of declining churches surround themselves with like-minded voices and influences, convinced they’re right and everyone else is wrong.

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5. They quickly went back to 3 songs and a message as their service formats

Even pre-COVID, it was becoming clear that attractional churches were past peak and more charismatic churches were growing (here are 5 reasons why).  Recent research confirms that.

But the COVID disruption and mass move to online has meant most churches quickly discovered that what ‘worked’ in terms of in-person weekend services didn’t translate online, and many pivoted to shorter services, less music and more engaging, interactive formats to engage people.

Some pastors even hired YouTubers to help with message creation and delivery.

It’s still uncertain what the future design of church services online or in-person will reveal, but if this crisis is the accelerator and disruptor most think it is, then a return to a format that had stopped resonating deeply before is likely not the best move.

The key is to keep faithfully experimenting and exploring what helps people best connect with God.

What’s happened so far in the crisis isn’t innovation, it’s adaptation. Most of the innovation lies ahead.

If you’re already thinking, well, everyone I know likes it that way, see point 4 above and point 7 below.

What’s happened so far in the current crisis isn’t innovation, it’s adaptation. Most of the innovation lies ahead.

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6. The church building, not the home or community, was re-established as the sole locus of ministry

One thing this crisis has revealed is how facility-centric the dominant model of ministry has been for generations in the Western Church. Take away our buildings, and we’re all a little lost.

One trend developing before our eyes is the home as the new center of life. In the last six months, work, food preparation, entertainment, school, and shopping are now more home-based than ever.  And for 6 months, that’s been true of church.

Some of that will shift. Not all work will stay remote, but my guess is online shopping, working from home, take-out food, and entertainment will long term trend toward home-based ventures.

A few churches have already pivoted toward moving from a church with 5 locations to a church with hundreds or thousands of locations—those being peoples’ homes.

Wise church leaders will cooperate with this trend rather than compete with it.  They’ll get over their building addiction and the ego boost of full rooms and work on reaching people, which is kind of the point anyway.

In the future, dying churches will see their building—not the home and community—as the primary locus of ministry. Growing churches won’t.

In the future, dying churches will see their building—not the home and community—as the primary locus of ministry. Growing churches won’t.

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7. The leaders excluded Gen Z from the inner leadership circle

Whether you think generational difference are overblown or not, just because you have a 30-year-old on your staff doesn’t mean you’re ready for the next generation.

Gen Z is now graduating college and they’re distinguishing themselves from Millennials, sometimes giving Millennials the same slamming the rest of the culture gives Boomers. While this sounds trivial (and in many regards it is), every generation is defined by something a little different.

Gen Z is the first truly digital native generation to emerge, and their cultural formation is being shaped by all kinds of things like Corona-virus, racial justice, climate change and much more.

Plus, the oldest Gen Z was only 10-years-old when YouTube was born and 12 when the iPhone was launched. They have always consumed and created content differently than any other generation.

If you’re wondering how the thinking and experience between generations varies, enjoy this video of Fred and Tim Williams, twenty-two year-old twins hearing Phil Collins In the Air Tonight for the first time.

The average senior pastor is 57 these days. Surrounding yourself with leaders two or three generations below you and giving them actual influence, authority and responsibility is one of the best ways to keep you and your church young.

And if you’re worried they’re not ready of that kind of responsibility, neither were you when someone handed you the keys. Neither was I. We figured it out. They will too.

Mentoring doesn’t just happen older leader to younger leader; it happens the other way around too.

Once I turned 40, one of the best decisions I made was to keep young leaders at the senior leadership table.

Keeping young leaders around your leadership table is one of the best ways to keep the next generation in your church.

Mentoring doesn’t just happen older leader to younger leader; it happens the other way around too.

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Help Your Team Crush Their Goals As You Move Into the Future (FREE TRAINING)

The future won’t be easy, and many leaders fear their team isn’t up to the challenge.

If you’re ready to change that, I have a simple strategy that will help your team crush their goals in a new free two-part teaching series.

The series consists of two short videos and two free PDF guides to help you hit objectives and create a better team culture.

This isn’t just another goal-setting methodology… there are so many great ways to go about setting goals. It’s a system you can use for real accountability so that you and your team actually hit the goals that you set.

On top of that, I’ll show you the 3-step process that completely transformed how I go about creating a healthy team culture.

Learn more and get free, instant access to the teaching series here.

What Are You Seeing?

I hope this is helpful. I am not saying I know the future. No one does.

But I think we have clues as to how decisions we make today impact the future we live tomorrow.

What do you see? What are some decisions leaders will regret five years down the road?

The post The NEW Characteristics of Churches That Will Be In Decline Five Years From Now  appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: The NEW Characteristics of Churches That Will Be In Decline Five Years From Now 

The post The NEW Characteristics of Churches That Will Be In Decline Five Years From Now  appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: The Church.Digital

What does the future hold for Virtual Reality?… for Artificial Intelligence? Talk to the business world and they’re chomping at the bit to take advantage of disruptions like these. But what of the church world? As a general rule, we’re more skeptical of these innovations.

Is the skepticism warranted? Or are we missing an opportunity? This is where Christopher Benek comes in. As Lead Pastor at First Presbyterian Miami, he understands the value of our buildings. A Historical Landmark in the heart of Downtown Miami (located right on Biscayne Bay), First Pres’ is one of the highest valued church properties in all of Miami. But is the property effective in making disciples tomorrow? Today?

This is where the conversation takes us. Christopher waxes theoretic a bit, and tells us about some of the new developments coming out of the ChVRch+ platform, and how churches of today need to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges.

Stadia is getting ready to launch another round of their Phygital Learning Communities. Almost 70 churches right now are learning how to THRIVE, GROW, and MULTIPLY. We want to help your church learn how physical and digital can work together to achieve your mission and vision, meanwhile letting your Church, Online, be authentically you. Phygital Learning Communities are starting soon. Check out http://stadiachurchplanting.org/phygital for more information.

If you’re enjoying this episode, subscribe for free using your favorite podcast app below:

Apple Podcasts | RSS Feed | Anchor | Overcast | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Google Play

ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 084: Christopher Benek, Virtual Reality, & Beyond Church Buildings

The post PODCAST 084: Christopher Benek, Virtual Reality, & Beyond Church Buildings appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Carey Nieuwhof

The good news is it feels like we’re entering a new season of leadership and ministry.

Although the coronavirus is still with us, churches and businesses are reopening and things that weren’t possible a month or two ago are now possible again.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the new season is perhaps even more complicated than the season of crisis we just left. And it’s way more complicated than having a second wave of the virus (as serious as that might be).

I also realize you’re likely tempted to stop reading right here.

After all, you really can’t handle one more person saying more change is ahead.

I get it. Some days, neither can I.

We’re all more than a little fatigued, frazzled and irritated. And everybody (including me) is long for some semblance of normal.

Everything in you wants to go back to as much normal as you can possibly find. And that would be great, if it wasn’t also deadly.

The good news is we’re entering a new season. The bad news is that it’s likely more complicated than the season of crisis we just left.Click To Tweet

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.

Right now, every church is a startup and if you see it that way, you can advance your mission. There are so many people to reach, and an entire next generation in need of the Gospel.

And as hard as it is to hear, the next season will probably require more leadership from you, not less.

But, because of deep fatigue, a longing for normal and a hope that all the problems go away, too many church leaders will default into managing what was rather than leading into what will be— trying to bring the past back, to normalize ministry and to recreate what was lost rather than moving ahead into a new future.

But your work is too important to do that. You know it. I know it.

For all of those reasons and more, it’s just far too easy to blow it in this next season of ministry and leadership.

Here are 8 easy ways to do it.

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.Click To Tweet

1. Don’t Take Time off To Restore Yourself

I was going to put this last, but let’s lead with it instead and call an audible.

The reason you don’t want to read this post, let alone act on it, is because you’re tired. I get it. This has been a very tiring season.

And one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to not take time off to restore yourself.

While this isn’t a clinical definition, having burned out years ago, I’m sensing three levels of weariness in myself and amongst other leaders right now:

Tired

Fatigued

Exhausted

Tired responds quickly to cause and effect. You put in a long, hard day, you eat well, get some exercise and get some sleep, and soon you bounce back. If not the next day, then shortly thereafter.

Fatigued is a level of weariness beyond just tired. Fatigue will respond to stimulus (sleep, rest, diet, exercise, prayer) but it just takes longer. You’re not burning out, but there’s a slow drain going on that you really can’t ignore.

Exhausted is a place you find yourself in where you’re more than just tired or fatigued. The recovery is longer, harder and you need more time for restoration. It can easily lead to burnout if you let it (here are 11 signs you may be burning out).

Again, those aren’t clinical definitions, but I hope they’re helpful definitions.

The point is regardless of which stage you’re at, you need time to truly restore yourself this summer. The more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be.

Leaders, the more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be. Click To Tweet

So what’s your plan? If in fact you’re going into a prolonged season of uncertainty and dislocation, you need stamina for the long haul.

Maybe the best thing you can do as a response to this post and the challenges ahead is to book some downtime and then figure out a sustainable pace that will take you through the next few years.

I share the strategies I use to find a sustainable pace here.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now.

And please hear me…the work you’re doing is so important, and you want to be well and stay well for the road ahead.

Because, as you know, the work is both important and challenging.

Which leads us to the second way to blow it in the next season of leadership.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now. Click To Tweet

2. Let Your Fatigue Drive Your Decisions

Your level of fatigue as a leader impacts more than you and your family. It also impacts your organization.

Why? Well, it can be so easy to let your fatigue drive your decision making. You avoid the hard decisions, take the complicated things off the agenda and go into robot mode or stick with what you know because it’s just, well, easier.

Don’t let your fatigue drive your decision making.Click To Tweet

So how do you counter that?

The best way to gain energy for the decisions you know you need to make is to simply your model of ministry.

If you only do a few things and do them well, you’ll be able to put most of your energy into the things that need it most, rather than diffusing it across a dozen things.

Think about it this way: Doing the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing, ultimately energizes you.

Taking the path of least resistance ultimately drains you when you discover you’ve lost ground and grown irrelevant and ineffective.

Hint: in leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.

So get some good rest, and then rally the team and do the things you know you need to do.

In leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.Click To Tweet

3. Play The Short Game

Another easy way to blow it in leadership is to play the short game.

The short game right now probably looks like this: get back to normal as quickly as possible with in-person services and pick up where you left off or recreate what you lost.

What’s even more challenging is that for a meaningful percentage of churches, online attendance is up and so is giving, or at least it’s steady.

That kind of success or stability will keep your focus on the short game while you ignore the tectonic shifts happening in culture.

The long game is about preparing your church to reach unchurched people in the future. (For more on that, see this and this.)

And that’s as complex and challenging as it sounds.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.Click To Tweet

4. Ignore Volunteers

Because most churches were staffed and programmed for in-person ministry, one of the thing that went dormant almost instantly was the volunteer corp at most churches.

When church went online, what used to take dozens or hundreds of people to run suddenly only took a handful.

As a result, many churches have dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of volunteers who haven’t served in months.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return.

Connecting with your volunteers, encouraging them to serve in their community and remobilizing them even before you need them will prepare you for a strong future.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return. Click To Tweet

5. Assume Families are Just Fine

I realize it’s been a crisis, so it’s understandable that many leaders haven’t had the bandwidth to think about volunteers. But there’s another group that probably needs your attention: families.

Families will likely not be the first to return to in-person services because of a variety of factors, not the least of which is the lack of kids ministry upon re-opening in many cases.

Frank and Jessica Bealer, who have served at several mega-churches, including Elevation Church, have some very powerful and insightful ideas and strategies about how to come alongside families who attend in person and those who attend online in these unusual times.

You can listen to the conversation they had with David Kinnaman and me here.

Just know this: ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.

Ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.Click To Tweet

6. Don’t Reposition Your Staff

The staffing structure you had heading into the crisis is likely not the staffing structure you need heading into the future.

Why? Well, when things change, you need to change too.

Most churches are currently staffed for in-person ministry, and that’s about it. As complex as in-person ministry is right now, online church is probably a big part of the future.

And if that’s the case, how are you positioned for it?

Tagging it onto your creative team’s job description or handing it to a 19-year-old volunteer is probably not a great long term strategy.

Further, it’s probably going to require a skillset you may not have on your current team. So recruiting volunteers and staff around that is wise.

So is allocating some of your budget. Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry.

If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that.

Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry. If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that. Click To Tweet

7. Put Online on Autopilot

Most churches have made significant progress with their online ministry: either they’ve started one or seen the existing online outreach and ministry grow.

That’s incredible.

And right now, the big temptation is to leave all that on auto-pilot as assume it will grow automatically.  Which of course, as soon as you say it out loud, you realize won’t happen.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world. Click To Tweet

8. Put All Your Focus On Sunday

In the early days of the crisis, churches were trying all kinds of things online.

Maybe you’ve noticed too. Almost everyone has pivoted back to focusing only on Sunday.

For all the reasons already listed in this post (especially fatigue), that’s understandable. It’s also a mistake.

For the first time in history, online ministry allows church leaders to come alongside people 7 days a week in an easy, accessible way.

I’ve written about this extensively elsewhere, but church-in-a-box was already past its expiry date.

Returning your focus to one day—Sunday—and taking your eye off of all the other opportunities positions your church for the past, not for the future.

Here are some ideas on the future church.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day. Click To Tweet

If You Want a Simple Framework For Change, This Is It

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now.

Some organizations will survive, some will thrive, and others won’t make it.

I’d love for you to be one of the thrivers.

Who will thrive in the new normal? The future belongs to the pivoters.

How well-positioned are you for future pivots?

My brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What Do You See?

I realize how tiring all the change ahead can be. So please, get some meaningful rest and find a sustainable pace.

I hear you. I’m with you.

But you know this, as leaders, truth is our friend.

And just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The future is unkind to the unprepared, so I’m grateful we get to think through this together.

What else are you seeing?

What other things can catch us off guard in this season?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry

The post 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Carey Nieuwhof

As you know, these are some of the most complex times in church leadership in decades.

As churches reopen their in-person gatherings, there’s one particular trap to watch out for.

The early indications are that in-person church attendance is lower than anyone expected. Most leaders I connect with who have reopened public worship say they are seeing between 10-40% of their former in-person attendance.

Whether that’s a temporary trend or something more permanent remains to be seen (sadly, I suspect lower in-person attendance is a more permanent trend), the reality is that almost everyone’s expectations of a great return to church have been dashed.

While so many leaders imagined that the first Sunday back would be like Chris Farley’s famous entrance on Letterman, that hope has given way to the tough reality of social distancing, the current inability to offer kids ministry, older or at-risk adults understandably staying away and a lot of people seeming to prefer digital church or non-attendance than in-person attendance.

Which leads into very real trap that’s emerging for church leaders. Most churches are now doing both in-person and online services as they reopen.

The trap: what if you end up doing neither well?

Regardless of your church size, that’s a very real trap for at least three reasons.

As hard as it is to acknowledge, in-person church attendance isn’t returning to pre-COVID levels any time soon. Click To Tweet

1. COVID Probably Accelerated Trends That Have Been Happening for Decades

While the full story of what happened to church post-COVID has yet to play out, I suspect that the disruption has accelerated at least two trends we’ve seen for decades.

First,  declining church attendance has been intensifying for decades.

Second, even Christians who attend church are attending less often.

So what does that mean?

Mybe the low numbers of in-person worship attendance isn’t just COVID related. Perhaps it’s an acceleration of the non-attendance trends the church has seen for decades.

Maybe the low numbers of in-person worship attendance isn’t just COVID related. Perhaps it’s an acceleration of the non-attendance trends the church has seen for decades. Click To Tweet

I certainly hope I’m wrong. In fact, I’d be delighted to be wrong.

I also realize I’m stepping on sensitive ground for church leaders who are already tired. But wise leaders don’t let their fatigue make decisions for them.

Whenever I suggest people won’t rush back to church, I get a string of comments and messages from church leaders who deny it, are angry about it, or argue incessantly that the church has always gathered and it will always gather.

I understand.

But denial isn’t a strategy. Or at least not a good one. Neither is anger.

And if this is, in fact, an intensification of trends that have been happening for decades, perhaps it’s time for a new strategy.

I outline some broad strokes for the future church in this post where I outline 7 new disruptive church trends.

Just know this (as hard as it is to admit): adopting a ‘they’re all going to come back just like before” mindset can land you right in the middle of the trap.

Denial isn’t a strategy. Wise leaders don’t let their fatigue make decisions for them. Click To Tweet

2. You’re Currently Staffed for Where You’re Seeing Low Returns

If it’s actually the case that in-person attendance numbers will continue to be lower even after COVID is completely a non-issue (which could be months or years from now), then that creates a challenge.

Namely, that many churches have the highest level of staff and budgets invested where they’re seeing the lowest returns.

Many churches have the highest level of staff and budgets invested where they’re seeing the lowest returns. Click To Tweet

Sure, in-person worship and gathering isn’t going away. As long as there are people, people will want to gather in person.

But in the same way almost every CEO is rethinking how much office space they really need in light of how well their teams are working from home, church leaders may want to rethink why they’re spending the vast majority of their time, budget and human resources at in-person services that very few people attend.

If this is indeed an acceleration of in-person attendance trends that have been in-play for decades, you could easily end up behaving like the CD salesperson in the age of Spotify or like a mall owner in the age of Amazon.

If your mission is to fill buildings, then keep going with your current strategy. But if your mission is to reach people, it might be time to rethink things.

If your mission is to fill buildings, then keep going with your current strategy. But if your mission is to reach people, it might be time to rethink things. Click To Tweet

3. You’re Deeply Understaffed for Where You’re Seeing the Highest Reach

The vast majority of churches pivoted to online quickly in March 2020 and saw a large attendance spike over previous levels.

After leaders figured out how to count more accurately and the novelty of online church sagged for leaders and congregants, most churches then saw a drop off in from their initial online attendance numbers (I share reasons as to why that happened here).

Consequently, when the option of resuming in-person worship again became available,  many leaders put all their effort back into that.

A few notes on this.

First, it’s probably wise to see where you’re currently getting the highest reach. My guess is that for many re-opened churches, the higher reach remains online.

Second, even if your in-person numbers are higher than your live-stream audience, take the time to add in the number of on-demand views you get for a message or service within the first week a service goes live. My guess is it at least matches your in-person attendance, and in most cases will be higher.

What’s strange is that experiencing higher online attendance than in-person attendance has been true for many churches long before COVID hit. It’s just that nobody was really paying attention to the trend or knew what to do with it if they noticed it.

Third, despite the fact that they’re reaching fewer people than ever in-person, many church leaders are pivoting back to putting 90-95% of their time and attention into in-person services.

To make it even more complicated, the necessary requirements of disinfecting, social distancing, touch-free experiences and a highly safe and secure environment mean that unprecedented levels of effort are going into in-person worship.

The big question is if the future is digital, why the lop-sided investment? Everyone you want to reach is online, and digital ministry scales in a way that physical ministry does not.

Digital ministry scales in a way that physical ministry does not.Click To Tweet

Again, I think in-person worship is here to stay. I think it’s necessary both theologically and practically. And yes, your physical gatherings may still grow once all the dust settles. All that being true, in-person services will still likely be your smaller footprint moving forward.

So…why invest the vast majority of your time, energy and money into the platform that has the lowest return and the lowest potential?

You can invest for the past or invest for the future, but personally, I’d be investing for the future.

Why invest the vast majority of your time, energy and money into the platform that has the lowest return and the lowest potential?Click To Tweet

Your Digital Ministry Is Just Getting Started

So what do you do?

As much as you have dreams, hopes and prayers that seem infinite, you and I both live within the constraints of limited time, energy and resources.

To really positions yourself well for the future, here are three suggestions.

First, staff your online ministry like it was real, because it is. As I outlined here (long before COVID) it was probably wise to start investing 30% of your staff resources in online ministry. Today that’s even more pressing.

You probably won’t have a big impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.

You probably won’t have a big impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.Click To Tweet

Second, treat the people you’re reaching online as though they’re real people, because they are.

Finally, some of the money you were going to put into physical ministry into better digital ministry.  (Hint, digital ministry doesn’t come even close to costing as much as physical ministry does. Here’s why.)

It’s not just new dollars that are needed. You can redeploy existing resources to have a better reach.

Treat the people you’re reaching online as though they’re real people, because they are. Click To Tweet

So here’s the thing about online church and online ministry:

You haven’t even really started yet.

The ‘innovation’ that happened in the first few months of lockdown wasn’t really innovation. It was adaptation.

The ‘innovation’ that happened in the first few months of lockdown wasn’t really innovation. It was adaptation.Click To Tweet

After a month of online church, a lot of church leaders settled into a pattern that would get them through the next few months and stopped experimenting.

Which means the innovation hasn’t even started yet.

If you’re really going to grow your mission, serve your people and reach new people, it’s going to take a lot of innovation and experimentation.

Which means you’ll need to stay curious and agile.

Positioning your church for strong digital ministry positions your church for the future. And if you really want to reach people, it’s the best strategy you have.

Positioning your church for strong digital ministry positions your church for the future. And if you really want to reach people, it’s the best strategy you have. Click To Tweet

Position Yourself to Thrive in the New Normal

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now.

Some organizations will survive, some will thrive, and others won’t make it.

I’d love for you to be one of the thrivers.

Who will thrive in the new normal? The future belongs to the pivoters.

How well positioned are you for future pivots?

My brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What’s In Your Future?

I realize not everyone will agree with these ideas…but what do you think about the future?

What’s the best investment for your time, energy and resources?

The post In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well

The post In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Welcome back to our monthly All About Multisite podcast! I’m chatting with a group of multisite ninjas and answering your questions about the ins and outs of launching new campuses. Our group is as follows:

Natalie Frisk is our family ministry expert. She is a key leader from The Meeting House. This church has 19 (!) locations and is doing all kinds of great stuff, including a killer kids’ & youth curriculum that they give away for free. Natalie’s a lot of fun and will have so many great insights around leading in a thriving multisite church.

Greg Curtis is our guest connections and assimilation expert. He leads at Eastside Christian Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, and literally, is the “go to” source for getting people to stick and stay in the church. (Eastside has assimilated something like 1,500 people in the last 18 months!) His coaching practice around assimilation is amazing.

Ben Stapley is our communications and service programming expert. Ben is one of the most helpful leaders I know. His day job is the Weekend Experience Director at Christ Fellowship in Miami, but he does so much to help other leaders with the “big show” part of church world.

And I, Rich, have been involved with 14 different campus launches over the years and enjoy helping churches that are thinking about multisite.

We are here to answer your questions about running a multisite church and are excited to be here today with our ninth episode.

…

Source: All About Multisite // The 2019 Predictions Episode!

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by Carey Nieuwhof: Everything has its season.

And the season of the cool church is, in many ways, coming to an end.

Recently, I wrote a post that generated a lot of discussion online and offline about why charismatic churches are growing and attractional churches are past peak. You can read that post here.

To drill down further, here’s more on what’s been happening as the culture changes around us.

So flip back a few decades…There was an era when simply being a cooler, more relevant church than the church down the road helped churches reach unchurched people.

There was a day when all you had to do was improve the church you led to gain traction.

Trade in the choir for a band. Turn the chancel into a platform. Add some lights, some sound, some haze. Get some great teaching in the room. And voila, you had a growing church.

But we’re quickly moving into a season where having a cool church is like having the best choir in town: it’s wonderful for the handful of people who still listen to choral music.

Somethings changing. And a hundreds of thousands of dollars in lights and great sound gear are probably not going to impact your community like they used to.

So what’s changing? Plenty.

…

The post Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church)

The post Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: It’s a tough question to answer: so, is your church ready for the future?

A lot of the time, I’m afraid the answer is no.

Culture is changing so rapidly that’s it’s hard for anyone to keep up.

Ask people what’s changing faster, the culture or the church, and pretty much everyone will tell you the culture is changing much more quickly. Hands down more rapidly.

The gap between how quick your church changes and how quickly culture changes is called irrelevance.

So how would you know if your church is ready for the future?

Here are 5 signs it’s not.

The gap between how quick your church changes and how quickly culture changes is called irrelevance.Click To Tweet

1. You Don’t Understand the Culture

Listen, this one’s hard.

Culture is changing rapidly. But in addition to that, it’s also fragmenting, fast.

Knowing the culture is changing and understanding how it’s changing are two different things.

Knowing the culture is changing and understanding how it’s changing are two different things.Click To Tweet

There are two primary reasons it’s becoming difficult to truly understand the culture:

First, the pace of cultural change continually speeds up. The internet has both increased connectivity and speed. As a result, we know about trends faster and they tend to change faster.

Second, tastes and preferences are far more fragmented than they used to be. For example, since music has switched to on-demand streaming, there’s not much a common playlist anymore.

Don’t believe me? Check out the top 40 songs on iTunes or Spotify and I guarantee you most church people wouldn’t know the majority of artists, let alone like them. Matchbox 20 and Celine Dion aren’t exactly lighting up the charts much these days.

The point? If you don’t understand the culture, you lose the ability to speak into it.

You don’t have to agree with what’s happening to speak into it, but you do need to understand it.

If you don’t understand the culture, you lose the ability to speak into it.Click To Tweet

2. You’re Not Taking The Internet Seriously Enough

It’s 2018, people. Pretty much everyone slips seamlessly between a digital and analog life these days.

Think about it. You’re reading this online. We’ve probably never met personally. And, about 70% of you are reading this on your phone.

Here’s what will happen next. You’re going to put your phone back in your pocket or purse when you’re done and likely talk to a real person who’s next to you or who just interrupted your reading.

We all slip unthinkingly between the digital and non-digital.

So why does this matter?

Well, it matters because that’s how the world behaves too. And everyone who you want to reach but isn’t in your church is online.

Church leaders, everyone who you want to reach but isn’t in your church is online. Click To Tweet

Despite knowing that everyone we want to reach is online, most churches staff, allocate resources and strategize about 99% of their time, energy and money for ministry within their physical buildings.

Want to really stretch your thinking? Start thinking of your church as a digital organization with a physical presence, not a physical organization with a digital presence. Let that bend your mind for a while.

Remember, everyone you’re trying to reach is online. Why aren’t you taking that more seriously?

What if you thought of your church as a digital organization with a physical presence?Click To Tweet

3. You Think Small Changes Are Good Enough

Change can be hard in the church. (For example, here are 7 signs your church will never change).

So when it comes to change, most leaders settle. Any change is better than no change, right?

Well, that’s true.

But just know this: small changes never solve big problems.

Small changes never solve big problems.Click To Tweet

And when the vast majority of churches aren’t accomplishing the potential of their mission…that’s a big problem.

Small changes won’t move you into a substantially better future. If the problem is big, the change needs to be big too. Small changes never solve big problems.

This is true for stuck and declining churches, but it’s also true for larger and successful churches.

One of the biggest challenges for larger or even growing churches is, as Jim Collins puts it, the hubris born of success.

Don’t focus just on what God has done through you or is doing through you. Pray about what he might do through you yet. Does your current success give you a sense of satisfaction? Let the mission drive you to further action.

If you don’t, you’ll settle for small changes that will inevitably lead you into future decline.

Does your success give you a sense of satisfaction? Let the mission drive you to further action.Click To Tweet

4. No One In Your City Even Knows You’re There

A growing problem for many churches is not persecution, it’s indifference.

Most leaders tend to overestimate how well their church is known, loved and respected in their community.

But the next time you drive by a church you know nothing about, ask yourself if you’d notice if it was gone. Most of us have no idea what goes on inside.

That’s how most people who live in your community probably feel about your church.

How can you change that?

Jeff Henderson of Gwinnett Church has pioneered something that’s spread to thousands of churches—the #FOR initiative—in which churches demonstrate to their communities that God is for them and the church is for them. Rather than waiting for people to love us, the #FOR initiative shows the city that we love them. I interview Jeff Henderson about the #FOR initiative on my leadership podcast. You can listen for free here.

A growing problem for many churches is not persecution, it’s indifference.Click To Tweet

5. You’re Not That Passionate About the Mission

You know what’s missing in so many churches and so many leaders?

Passion.

The church has the best mission in the world. There’s none better, and it has the potential to transform the entire planet.

But so many church leaders have lost their passion. So have many churches.

It’s easy to get distracted by challenges that take you off mission. Or to have life and leadership suck the juice out of you.

Leaders, your church will never be more passionate about the mission than you are.

And congregations, your passion for the world should be so white hot that people can’t help but wonder what’s going on.

Leaders, your church will never be more passionate about the mission than you are.Click To Tweet

Reignite Your Passion

You may read a post like this and think “I don’t really have the time to make the changes we need to make at our church. I’m already overwhelmed with trying to keep with everything that’s going on, despite the fact that I know it’s not working as well as it should be.”

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by life and leadership, you’re not alone.

What if it could be different?

What if you could have the time to fix what’s broken, re-engineer the future AND have more time with your family?

That’s the heart behind The High Impact Leader Course.

This 10-session online course will show you highly practical, proven strategies on how to finally get time, energy and priorities working in your favor. It includes 10 videos, an online workbook and 10 specific exercises that will help you create a personalized plan to help you get productive and accomplish the things you know are most important, but rarely have time for.

Check it out here

The course, which proceeds at your personal pace whenever you’re ready to tackle a unit, is designed to help you:

Get your most important priorities done early in the week, every week.

Spend more of your time at work doing the things that energize you and less time doing the things that drain you.

Invest more of your time with the people who energize you and less time with the people who drain you.

Discover time to finally exercise, pursue a hobby,  launch a blog, start a podcast or write that book.

Actually be OFF when you have a day off.

Be far more focused on your family when you’re with your family.

Learn how to say no nicely, so you can free up time for the things you’re truly called to do.

In short, it’s designed to help get your life and leadership back, or perhaps find them for the very first time.

Find the Time to Work on the Future

Does the course help leaders? You can ask over 3000 alumni.

Dave from Invitation Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a married pastor of a new church plant who has two kids under the age of five says:

“Just wow. Thank you. The course helped me identify my priorities and work to bring clarity in all phases of my life.  I feel SO, SO, SO much more freedom.”

Listen to Isaac’s story. He recently completed the High Impact Leader course:

If you asked me earlier this year if I would want a repeat of 2017 I would have said, no way.

After walking through the High Impact Leader though, I would and will repeat what I have been doing in the last few months.

It has allowed me to be more strategic with my time, energy, and priorities like never before. I have held a full schedule for the last few months and unlike ever before, my family did not feel the weight of it, my family was prioritized at the top of it.

Thank you, Carey, for helping the end of 2017 be great and I’m very excited about what 2018 is going to hold!

Pam from Red Rock Church in Colorado Springs calls the High Impact Leader “a gamechanger.”

And that’s the goal. I hope that’s what will happen in your life.

The High Impact Leader course has already helped over 3000 leaders accomplish far more.

Registration is open now for a very limited time, and for the last time at its current pricing. I’ve added some special bonuses for this launch you won’t want to miss.

To enroll and get instant access, click here.

See Any Signs?

What are some signs you see that tell you whether your church is ready for the future or not?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Signs Your Church Isn’t Ready For the Future appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Signs Your Church Isn’t Ready For the Future

The post 5 Signs Your Church Isn’t Ready For the Future appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: You got into church leadership because you wanted to introduce people to Jesus. That’s pretty much how all of us begin, isn’t it?

And yet every year, it seems to get harder to reach people.

It’s not for lack of effort. Most church leaders try hard, pray hard and do their very best to advance the mission of their church.

But the facts speak for themselves. The majority of churches are in decline, and 94% of all churches are losing ground against their community (that is, their community is growing faster than the church is).

And yet, even in the midst of that, some churches are growing.

In those churches are the early clues to what future church growth looks like.

Here are 7 factors that will drive almost all future church growth.

1. Personal Invitation

One of the things that fly under the radar of most growing churches is how much personal invitation fuels church growth (and discipleship).

A great social media presence is important, as are services unchurched people can access.

But at the heart of it all, in almost every growing church is this: people inviting their friends.

Personal invitation fuels much of future church growth. Conversely, if your church members don’t invite their friends, don’t expect to grow.

If your church members don’t invite their friends, don’t expect to grow.Click To Tweet

This assumes Christians actually have non-Christian friends they can invite. Shockingly, too many Christians don’t.

Many Christians cocoon in their little bubble, distraught over the direction the world is heading and angry at or indifferent toward people who don’t hold their values and beliefs.

Don’t miss this, Christians: it’s hard to reach a world you don’t love…or know.

Christians, it’s hard to reach a world you don’t love…or know.Click To Tweet

2. Refusing to Settle for Mediocre

It’s one thing to invite your friends. It’s quite another to have a great experience to invite them into.

Many churches settle for mediocrity. Don’t.

Battle mediocrity instead. Too many churches allow what’s good to stand in the way of what could be great.

Too many churches allow what’s good to stand in the way of what could be great.Click To Tweet

To some extent, that means a service with decent music (decent to outsiders, not insiders), authentic, compelling preaching, a solid next-gen ministry and a good guest services approach (making your guests feel welcome).

An awkward reality of stuck and declining churches is that they choose inclusion over excellence. We let a not-very-gifted singer sing because no one has the courage to tell him he can’t. We let non-leaders lead because they’ve been there the longest, and they’re bossy, and we’re all afraid. (I wrote more about this dynamic that here.)

I’m not judging. I’ve led in that context before, and that’s one of the first things a leader has to change.

God designed some people to sing. Get them singing.

He gave others the gift of rhythm. Get them drumming.

He gave some the gift of leadership or communication. Get them leading and communicating.

It’s a mistake to dismiss that as entertainment. It’s called gifting. And the body of Christ works best on gifting.

The price you pay is a service nobody really likes, except the insiders, kind of like a school play parents endure because they know their kid is in it.

If your worship service is something only insiders love, don’t be surprised when outsiders walk away.

If your worship service is something insiders love, don’t be surprised when outsiders walk away.Click To Tweet

3. An Open Door Online AND A Great In-House Experience

The online world is continuing to become more and more real. Your regular attendees and everyone you want to reach moves seamlessly between the digital and real worlds these days.

Future churches know this is true.

One of the tensions most leaders have felt, though, is a fear that a great online experience will mean people stop coming to church. If you post your messages online, why would people attend? If you give your best content away from free, why would people show up?

That can be a superficial fear (attendance alone is a poor motivator), but it points to something more deeply real.

Future churches will realize their online presence is their front door, not their back door. Will you lose a few people when you launch a great online presence? Sure. But they weren’t the kind of people you could build the future of the church on anyway. The people you lose through a solid digital presence are the kind of people who were sitting in the back row not serving, not inviting friends and not giving anyway. They were already on their way out or at least were barely hanging in.

The people you’ll reach? Well, there are 1,000 or 10,000 of them for every person you might lose.

Future churches will also realize, though, that following Jesus is about more than consuming content while you run, drive or cook dinner.

Our digital age also leaves people hungering for greater community, greater experience, and greater transcendence.

Which is why churches that are growing are focusing more and more on creating experiences that engage more than just the head on a Sunday…but also engage the heart and relationship.

In short, people don’t just want to know what’s true, they want to know what’s real. And what’s real is deeper than just an idea—it’s an experience.

They come looking for something bigger than themselves, and something frankly, bigger than us. They come looking for God.

It’s a shame is when people come to church looking for God and only find us.

It’s a shame is when people come to church looking for God and only find us.Click To Tweet

I think the best future churches will have content that leans toward the immanent—practical, helpful and digestible. And they’ll also offer experiences that are transcendent…that you had to be there to experience.

If everything your church does in the future feels downloadable, probably all you’ll get is a lot of downloads, not a lot of gathered people.

To put it simply, if people feel like they missed nothing when they missed church, they’ll keep missing church.

If what your church does touches the soul, people will continue to gather.

The best churches will offer both because that reflects the character and nature of God and the character of the Christian church at its best.

If people feel like they missed nothing when they missed church, they’ll keep missing church.Click To Tweet

4. Genuine Community

The paradox of our age is that we’ve never been more connected as a culture, and we’ve never felt more alone.

Churches that grow in the future will prioritize community. Real community.

Real community isn’t just ‘fellowship,’ where the people who already know each other catch up over coffee while new people go unnoticed.

Churches claim to be friendly, but that usually only means we’re friendly to each other.

Churches claim to be friendly, but that usually only means we’re friendly to each other.Click To Tweet

And catching up on what happened this week and talking about sports or the weather is hardly what Jesus had in mind when he told us to love one another.

But the truth is the real mission of the church is relationship. It defines the vertical nature of our faith (love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength) and the horizontal essences of Christianity (love your neighbor as yourself).

If anyone can get relationship right, it should be the church.

So ask yourself as a church leader: what are you doing to forge the deepest relationships you can forge between people in your church? Then do it.

The paradox of our age is that we’ve never been more connected, and we’ve never felt more alone.Click To Tweet

5. Deep engagement

As I’ve written about before, in the future church, engagement will drive attendance.

Why? Because in the future church only engaged people will attend because only the engaged will remain.

In the future church only engaged people will attend because only the engaged will remain.Click To Tweet

Think about it your church right now, whether it’s growing or not. Again and again, it’s engaged Christians who advance the mission.

Engaged people are passionate people. They know what the mission is. They serve in it. And they live it out.

They’re passionate enough about it to invite their friends.

Over the long-term in a church, you can accomplish more with 300 engaged Christians than with 3000 disengaged attendees.

You can accomplish more with 300 engaged Christians than with 3000 disengaged attendees.Click To Tweet

The disengaged group will dwindle. The 300 engaged Christians will advance the mission and never stay the same.

Yes, only God can bring growth. But he uses people who are engaged to do it.

If you want more on how to engage the people you have in the mission, here are 7 ways to do it.

Only God can bring growth. But he uses people who are engaged to do it.Click To Tweet

6. Clarity

This may seem like a strange one to add to the list, but it’s essential.

Growing churches are clear churches. They have clarity about the mission. Clarity about the vision. And they have clarity about the strategy.

Growing churches are clear churches.Click To Tweet

It’s strategic clarity that scares a lot of leaders. Here’s why: clarity takes courage, which is why so many leaders shy away from it.

Clarity means this is how we’re doing music. Often blended worship in a church exists to try to keep everybody happy, which of course means, no one is happy. Especially the leaders.

Clarity means this is how we’re going to reach our community. It also means, no, we’re not going to do X Y and Z. We’re about THIS instead.

I know language like that strikes fear into many hearts.

Clarity does not mean you issue executive fiats. It doesn’t mean my way or the highway.

It means a group of leaders has prayed and thought through the future, chosen what they believe is the best path to accomplish the mission, and then invited others along.

They focus on who they want to reach, not who they want to keep.

And usually (if the clarity points them in the right direction), they reach them.

Blended worship often exists to keep everyone happy. Which means no one is happy.Click To Tweet

7. Risk and Experimentation

To accomplish a radically new future, you will have to do radically different things.

The people you’re trying to reach don’t care what you did yesterday. Actually, they don’t really care what you’re doing today.

This scares the socks off of most of us. After all, risk is for risk-takers, and many of us are not crazy risk-takers.

Whether that’s pop-up church, micro campuses, new approaches to social, or even different ways to connect people, your church needs to rethink its current methods to accomplish its mission.

If you want to see some church trends to spark you thinking, here are some posts I wrote about disruptive church trends over the last few years:

2018 Church Trends

2017 Church Trends

2016 Church Trends

You can start experimenting today. And keep doing it.

Will you need to do some big stuff? Sure. But you’ll also need to try some little things. Experimentation can happen in anything.

Here’s a current example we’re trying at Connexus Church where I serve.

We’re in a 6 part series at Connexus Church called The Problem of God. It’s an apologetics series, and we really wanted people to invite their friends, which they did. We’ve set attendance records throughout the series.

We started by giving away free copies of the Problem of God book to kick off the series. That had the combined effect of drawing a lot of people in AND helping people go deep into the subject we’re tackling.

We’re also mashing up the digital world with live teaching by turning the 6 part series into an 11-part series via our audio podcast…adding an interview I did with Problem of God author Mark Clark. Then in the final week of the series, we’re also adding four bonus messages covering subjects we didn’t tackle live on the weekend. They’re actually just repurposed messages from other series, but they will make a nice little package for anyone who wants to go deeper on the subject. It’s a way of driving engagement, invitation and deeper personal discipleship all at once. Plus, churches are famous for never using past content for future purposes, and this changes that.  (You can see the approach here—NOTE; the final four bonus episodes will not appear until Sunday, February 18th, 2018.)

Because we anticipated a high turnout and a lot of new people, we also ran special Starting Point groups and a Group Link to connect people in the middle of the series and saw a huge response.

The result? More people in person. More people engaging online. Much more sharing. People connecting relationally, baptism requests and already a few dozen decisions for Christ.

Otherwise, it could have just been a six-part series to kick off the new year.

See the difference a little experimentation can make?

So experiment.

To accomplish a radically new future, you will have to do radically different things.Click To Tweet

Push Past Your Current Barriers

If you’re reaching more people but you’re currently stuck at an attendance plateau, I have some deeper practical help for you.

Breaking 200 Without Breaking You is a course I’ve created that provides strategies on how to tackle eight practical barriers (including a more nuanced and practical dive into everything I covered in this blog post) that keep churches from reaching more than 200 people. And it’s designed so I can walk your entire leadership team or elder board through the issues.

So whether your church is 50, 150 or 250 in attendance, the principles will help you gain the insight you need to break the barrier more than 85% of churches can’t break. Even churches with attendances of 300-500 are finding the material helpful as they try to reach more people.

Click here to get instant access for you and your team.

What Do You See?

As you look ahead to the future, what are the factors you in growing churches? Scroll down and leave a comment. Let’s help each other out.

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Source: 7 Things That Will Drive Future Church Growth

The post 7 Things That Will Drive Future Church Growth appeared first on Passion for Planting.