Moving Your Church Through Growth Barriers (2) We are creatures of habit and we all tend to gravitate to the comfortable pew in church. At least this has been my tendency. When I was a student at university I always sat in the same general area or desk in the classroom. It was familiar, and most often the same people would sit next to me or around me. The same is in church. It is usually always the same pew, on the left side of the sanctuary, surrounded by the same people – each and every Sunday. Perhaps this is a...

Moving Your Church Through Growth Barriers (1) You probably heard it said, “Starting the job is half done.” Some might take issue with this maxim arguing that it takes a whole lot more that simply starting something to get it done. That might be true. But there is much truth in this saying. I am writing this article whilst in one of the largest aircrafts in the world, an Airbus A380-800. Engineers will tell you that it takes a lot more energy to get this huge jet up in the air than to keep it flying at high altitude. The thrust...

Moving Your Church Through Growth Barriers - An Introduction There are many times in life when we come to a fork in the road and we have to make a choice. Do we turn to left or to the right? Or do we turn around? We need to make a choice. Which road do we take? In the words of Robert Frost, do we take the road less travelled? This is what Frost calls the road not taken. In my work coaching church leaders and congregations in missional strategies to reach the lost for Christ, I find that the majority of...

Driving along one day to my next destination I heard these words over the radio:  I am strong when I am on your shoulders, you raise me up to more than I can be. Immediately I began to think of the many times my wife or I have taken one of our children or grandchildren and put them on our shoulders, carried them on our backs, or in our arms. They might have become weary from a walk, or simply wanted to be close to us. But being carried on our shoulders lifted their burdens, and raised them up (literally) to new heights. In...

As the pages of a new year are turned on the calendar lots of people resolve to do something in the year ahead.   Many make the resolution to loose some weight.   The holiday season has packed on a few extra kilos and so people turn up at the gym and begin a routine of working out.   For others it might be to get out of debt.   Or attend church more often.   Or to improve time management.   Take a holiday.  Quick smoking. I like to suggest a challenge to you that you could turn into a...

Not too long ago I marked 33 years since I entered the ordained ministry. One of the things I did was to write one of my professors from my years at Calvin Theological Seminary. I just wanted to thank him for inspiring me so many years ago with a passion for the gospel and ministry in the church. Another one of my teachers at that time, Richard De Ridder, a missionary for many years, had charged us budding ministers to never lose our passion for the gospel and reaching the lost with the good news of Christ. He told us of...

The church has always been and is still only one generation from extinction!    This sobering reality is hitting home to many churches across Australia and in many other places in the world, including the churches that I serve in the CRCA.   In another 30 years these church buildings will close their doors, become restaurants, businesses, or mosques.  Why?   There simply won’t be anymore people!    But this has always been the reality!   Once upon a time the Christian Church in Jerusalem was a thriving hub of activity and outreach.   Travel today to Jerusalem and this church no longer exists.  The same is...

A lot of gatherings of people call themselves “church”.   But are they?   What is the essence of being church?   As I go around meeting with people to discuss church health issues, I keep wondering to myself (and them), “Is this bunch people what you might consider church?”   What do you look for?   Recently I came across words penned by the 15th century Catholic Cardinal Carlo Carretto:   “Defending life, witnessing light, living out love; these remain forever and for every occasion the divine background of prophecy; they are the specific duty of anyone who calls upon God, following Christ’s unmistakable example.”   Life,...

Sometimes it is good to look in the rear view mirror to see the way forward!  It was the ancient Greek historian Thucydides who said that his history was important to "those who desire an exact knowledge of the past as a key to the future, which in all probability will repeat or resemble the past."  Lately I have been reading history books.   A CRCA pastor got me on to Peter Fitzsimons and he is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors.   His retelling of the horrors of the Dutch spice trade in his book Batavia gave me a window into the...

“Everything rises and falls on leadership development.”    I am quoting Dale Galloway here but this is a church health principle that I have come to appreciate after more than three decades of pastoral ministry and almost a decade assisting unhealthy churches move toward health and growth.   Quoting Galloway again:  “It is my firm belief that the only way we will see the Great Commission fulfilled will be through the multiplication of leaders.   Contagious ministry multiplication happens through intentional leadership development.” (Innovative Transitions, Beacon Hill Press: 2007)   Leadership matters! You read the gospels and you notice quickly how Jesus spent the vast...

Recently I witnessed a hunger for the word of the LORD!   It reminded me of the words of the prophet Amos:  "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD GOD, "When I will send a hunger over the land, not a hunger for the bread or a thirst for water, but rather a hunger for hearing the words of the LORD." (Amos 8:11)  It began on a Sunday morning when I was asked to preach at the Coleridge South Seas Evangelical Church (SSEC) in Honiara, Solomon Islands.   I was in this country for six days for our annual visit to the SWIM base and our missionaries there.  ...

From 4-7 April seventy-one CRCA pastors, ministry workers, and their spouses gathered together for Recharge 2016.   It was a beautiful view!   As Peter Adam reminded us, the place where we gathered was Kalorama, which in Greek means "seeing beautiful things."   And it was beautiful in so many ways.   We began with dinner on Monday 4 April.   The conversations around the tables were lively and animated.   That evening, and over the next three days, Peter Adam walked us through the Biblical book of Esther.  We were reminded time and time again that here on earth we live as exiles.   But, like Esther, we are placed in this...

What is discipleship all about? How do we reach out to the lost, help people come to faith, encourage spiritual growth, and equip followers of Jesus to disciple others? People gathered in Campbelltown CRC to explore what it means to make true disciples.(see more photos) There were senior members who had a real concern to pass on their faith to their children and grandchildren. There were uni students exploring what they might do to engage fellow students in the claims of Christianity. Children were there thinking how they might use an iPad to learn about what it means to love Jesus...

Have you heard of Cardinal Borromeo?   A story is told by Abraham Kuyper when he gave the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898.   A 16th century plague had ruined the Italian city of Milan, and as the story goes, Cardinal Borromeo bravely stayed in that city to feed and pray for those who were dying.   Kuyper admired this Cardinal’s piety, but he admired John Calvin even more: During the plague, which in the 16th century tormented Geneva, Calvin acted better and more wisely, for he not only cared incessantly for the spiritual needs of the sick, but at the...

Most everybody has heard of Amazon!    Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos built Amazon from a small online bookseller to a retail giant.  In a recent article in Foreign Affairs (January 4, 2015) Bezos stated:   "Entrepreneurs ... benefit greatly from being willing to fail, willing to experiment.   Good entrepreneurs tend to be stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details.   Another quality is passion for the mission.   The very best products and services are always built by missionaries.  Such people wake up in the morning thinking about that idea, and they're doing that as they close their eyes at night."   When Bezos...

Recently I went through a Cardiac Computed Tomography(CT) Scan.   Sounds complicated, but really it is not!   Doctors used x-rays to take a bunch of detailed pictures of my heart, just to see how healthy my heart is.   Soon I will meet with a cardiologist to discuss the results of this scan. Every year I meet with many churches to discuss their health.   They too have gone through a scan.   In fact, over 1/3 of all CRCA churches have had this scan done.  The scan is not a CT Scan, but the NCD (Natural Church Development) survey.   A NCD survey gives detailed pictures of the health of...

Making disciples has always been a hot topic for me.  David Watson's book on world-changing discipleship, Called and Committed, changed my thinking back in the early 1980's, and in many ways, set the direction for my life's journey as a Christ-follower, a husband, father, and minister of the gospel.   Since then my library shelves have filled with countless other books on discipleship.   Did I really need to have one more? I couldn't resist when I came across Colin Neyes' recent book, As You Go Make Disciples (Resource Zone International: 2015).   This is not like one of Peter Fitzsimons' historical novels (I...

Water currents affect weather patterns. A clear example is an El Nino. When the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially warmer than average this causes a shift in atmospheric circulation. For Australia this means that 2015 will shape up to be one of the hottest years on record. Weather pattern bringing drought and bushfires is expected to reach full force by Christmas. New currents are also happening with the CRCA SWIM mission in Solomon Islands. And while an El Nino might have devastating effects all across the south Pacific, the new currents at SWIM hold great promise of increased...

In the CRCA we talk lots about church health.   It has been stated that healthy churches are growing churches.  But is this true?   If a church is healthy, does that means that we will see growth?   And what kind of growth are we referring to?   Growth in numbers?   Growth in spiritual vitality?   Growth in gospel impact?   Peter Smit has been engaged as a church planter in Baldivis, a growing suburb south of Perth in Western Australia.   I asked him about the correlation between chruch health and church growth.   This is how he responded: "In every natural system in creation, health and vitality are essential for growth and development....

Have you heard of Cardinal Borromeo?   A story is told by Abraham Kuyper when he gave the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898.   A 16th century plague had ruined the Italian city of Milan, and as the story goes, Cardinal Borromeo bravely stayed in that city to feed and pray for those who were dying.   Kuyper admired this Cardinal’s piety, but he admired John Calvin even more: During the plague, which in the 16th century tormented Geneva, Calvin acted better and more wisely, for he not only cared incessantly for the spiritual needs of the sick, but at the...