Articles + Podcast
The Role of Mission in Revitalization | Church Revitalization Podcast Ep. 5
Everything starts and ends with mission. We must re-frame the conversation about mission and explore the role that mission can play in helping your church. Here’s a hint, it’s a vital role.
Assessing Your Church’s Health | Church Revitalization Podcast Ep. 4
Guiding a church from being unhealthy to being healthy is never about giving them “tips and tricks” and taking on lots of new strategies; it’s about discovering the small number of actual solutions to their unique challenges and dysfunctions. This is why it’s important to assess your church’s health.
Empowering Your Revitalization Team | Church Revitalization Podcast Ep. 3
You’ve decided you're ready to engage in a revitalization process in your church either on your own or with an experienced, outside guide. You’ve decided on who will be a part of the team to go through the process. Ready to start? No! Don’t...
Building Your Revitalization Team | Church Revitalization Podcast Ep. 2
When The Malphurs Group works with a church in our Strategic Envisioning process, we guide the church through a revitalization team selection process. We want to share what we’ve learned through our years of working with churches through this process. Here are three principles for selecting members of your Revitalization Team.
Is Our Church Ready for Revitalization? | Church Revitalization Podcast Ep. 1
Congregations must “count the cost,” and assess its readiness to change (especially if there is question) before beginning a church revitalization process.
6 Characteristics of Revitalizing Pastors
Not everyone has the "right stuff." We often tell our children that they can be anything they want to be, but this isn't entirely true. It's a nice sentiment, but it's just false. At this point in life, my chances of being a professional football player are nil. Why?...
Stop Blaming Other Churches
Declining churches often feel that they would be growing, if it weren’t for that one church down the road, but it’s time to stop blaming other churches and seeing them as competition.
How to Thrive in a Post-Christian World
The world is full of darkness. The endless news of violence, tragedy, and pain is enough to make a person never want to leave their house. We know that the world has been dark since the fall of mankind, but the darkness in our age feels even darker and more oppressive. Here are six practical things your church can do to thrive in a post-Christian world.
13 Deadly Sins of a Dying Church
Out of our work and research from speaking with hundreds of churches over the last twenty years, we developed this list of “13 Deadly Sins of a Dying Church.” Our goal isn’t to critique or put down pastors and other Christian leaders but to motivate you to action.
How to Build a Discipleship Pathway
Churches are great at filling the calendar. Most churches have no shortage of programs, events, and fellowships. Yet most churches somehow struggle to do the one thing Jesus commissioned us to do: make disciples.
When your church focuses on filling the calendar with programs over creating a streamlined Discipleship Pathway, the people in your church will never be held accountable to grow.
Here are three steps to building a discipleship pathway.
How Core Values Impact Decision Making
The actual values of your church determine most of the decisions you make. The problem is that what you actually value may not line-up with the statements on your website or bulletin.
5 Characteristics of a Healthy Church
Everyone wants to be healthy. At least we think we do. Then we learn what being a healthy church requires. These common characteristics of a healthy church could be applied to almost any ministry or organization. 1) They are led well. Pastors committed to...
Leveraging the Summer Slump
There are a lot of well-meaning people who will try and tell you that your church can grow through the summer. Maybe your church shouldn’t try to go hard and grow through the summer (at least in terms of attendance). But maybe, instead of trying to avoid it, your church could leverage the summer slump.
Walking Through “Preparing Your Church for Revitalization”
We are all skeptical of "free" because nothing in life is free. We get it. We're skeptical, too. But our new course, "Preparing Your Church for Revitalization" really is 100% free with no strings attached. Another objection: it might be free, but it's all a sales...
Three Tips for Better Assimilation
We've all been there. A guest comes. A guest leaves. A guest never comes back. We scratch our heads and wonder, "What happened? Was it something I said?" Truthfully, most leaders don't know where the breakdown happens or why. The failure likely wasn't in the service...
Dealing with People Who Resist Change
Change isn't easy. Anyone who thinks that their church can turnaround at the snap of a finger has never tried to lead a congregational meeting! However, since 95% of churches are in decline, plateaued, or only growing via transfer growth, change in the church is...
TMG Live – January 15, 2019
TOPIC: In today's edition of TMG Live, we are sharing three reasons to be excited about your church in 2019. WHAT WE WANT YOU TO TAKE AWAY: Our main goal is to inspire and encourage you today. We desire for pastors and church leaders like you to feel like 2019 can be...
Breaking the Solo Pastor Barrier
Being a Solo Pastor is difficult work. I can relate. For over 20 years I worked as a small-business computer consultant. In the beginning I was just happy to have work but expected that I would grow into a larger business with employees. My business would ebb and...
How to Recruit More Volunteers
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." - Jesus Luke 10:2 reminds us of the uncomfortable truth about recruiting volunteers: there will always be more work than there are people willing to do the work. Obviously that was true in the first century and it...
Four Questions Young Families Ask When Looking for a Church
The church is bleeding fastest among its youth. If your church has seen decline in recent years, you likely know this to be true at the anecdotal level. But the research bears this out, too. 60% of Christians between 16-29 leave the church. Nearly every church that...
Maximizing Fall Outreach Events
Tis the season for trunk or treats, fall festivals, harvest bazaars, and more. Anytime we host an event at our church we need to be strategic about it. Otherwise, what's the point? We should always have a purpose and a plan. Even if that purpose is simply to be a good...
Warning Signs of a Bad Church Budget
Building a budget has got to be the least attractive part of going into ministry. I remember when I received the call from the Lord to go into ministry when I was in junior high school. I had dreams of sharing the gospel, comforting the down-trodden. I had a passion...
Tips to Increase Giving at Your Church
If we want to see increased giving in our churches, we cannot keep doing the same old things the same old way. We need to think differently. Here are 9 tips for increasing giving at your church.
Ministry Goals: Five Winning Characteristics
Your church will never go where you are not intentionally leading it. If you want to lose twenty pounds, but never go on a diet or exercise, it will not happen. If you want to retire with a nest egg, but never save and invest, it will not happen....