I have tried really hard to like golf, but I prefer hobbies that do not tempt me to say or do things I will regret later. One thing I do like about golf is the mulligan—a do-over stroke that doesn’t count. They make those terrible shots disappear into thin air.
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For many pastors, it’s difficult to not take it personally when people leave their church. But according to a recent Lifeway Research study, most churchgoers aren’t leaving a church because they have a personal complaint against the pastor. During the research screening process, it was determined only 53% of U.S. regular churchgoers say they have attended more than one church as an adult. Among these, most say their church change was impacted by a residential move (60%). Still, 40% of church changes were driven by something other than a residential move.
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Whether you fast one day, one week, one month, or longer, the goal of fasting is to disconnect from worldly distractions and prayerfully seek God. During your fast, indulge deeply in the reading of Scripture and longer seasons of private prayer. In addition, any opportunity to join with other believers in heartfelt praise, worship, and singing to the Lord will strengthen you spiritually.
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If my life could be marked by copies of Scripture, it would look something like this:
As a pastor, I really do understand. Ministry is hard, and some people in churches never get on board. Nevertheless, Thom Rainer showed years ago that pastors of Breakout Churches “refuse to blame others. They accept the responsibility that comes with being a leader.”
I’m at the point of life where I’m both planning for the future and reflecting on the past. As I think back on 40+ years of ministry, including 14 years of lead pastoring, here is one of my biggest regrets: I did not invest in college students well.
The longer a church small group is in existence, the more likely it is the group will have turned inwardly. They don’t move in that direction on purpose, but it happens.
Some years ago, I was diagnosed with neuropathy—in my case, a strange combination of tingling and numbness in my feet. Though the doctors never discovered the cause, I still think about that diagnosis when I find myself in a similar spiritual malaise of both needle-like tingling and numbness at the same time.
My assessment is that many, if not most, churches have no intentional, strategic plan in place to disciple believers. Illustrating an image I use in my book, Disciple: How to Create a Community that Develops Passionate and Healthy Followers of Jesus, these churches may have “puzzle pieces” of discipleship—but these puzzle pieces are lying around the floor. No one has put the puzzle together.
From my experience, here are seven reasons why some prodigals return to their family and their faith.
We who preach or teach are kidding ourselves if we believe everyone is listening to us when we speak. Somebody’s not listening and, if weren’t honest, we can identify some of those folks by just watching them while we’re speaking.
I have two pastoral heroes whose lives I want to emulate. One is now with the Lord, but the other continues to serve the Lord faithfully even into older age. I could write all day about things I heard them say that have changed my life, but I’m focusing in this post on things I’ve never heard from them. Sometimes, what we don’t say is as important as what we do say.
I’m not looking for a new church home. We love our pastors and the church’s vision, and we have no intention of going elsewhere. At the same time, though, I’m often in correspondence with people who are looking for a new church. They most often turn to the website to determine whether to visit a church, even when someone has invited them.
Recently, I led a collegiate conference at a local church. Every time I speak to college students, I’m reminded of two things: (1) they bring enthusiasm and potential to a local church, and (2) many, if not most churches—unlike the church where I did the conference—do a poor job of reaching these students. In fact, many churches lose their high school graduates when they go to college and don’t regain them (if they do) until they get married and have children.
