ChurchMorph is written to identify and explain various ways that the church is adapting to current societal transitions. These transitions or megatrends include: From modernity to postmodernity: Recognizing that people today place lower value on rationalistic or authoritative approach

From a recent study: Approximately 3/4 of their growing churches were being led by pastors who had been in their church more than four years, while 2/3 of their declining churches were being led by pastors who had been in their church less than four years.  Their conclusion (with whic

Today’s program was an interview with Thomas McArthur, former Iowa resident and current campus pastor a the Mundelein Campus of The Chapel, a multi-site church in the Chicago area. The program aired on Saturday, October 6th at 12:00pm on KTIA 99.3 FM. To listen to the program click on

Lawrence M. Mead was one of the theoretical architects of welfare reform of the 1990’s. This book focuses on identifying the cause of poverty and the cure. “The difficulty is that poverty involves more than low-income.” This key conclusion of Mead does away with that any solution to p

Patchwork Nation is a demographic/geographic breakdown of the nation into 12 different kinds of community. Using counties as our building blocks we have identified different kinds of places – everything from rural agricultural Tractor Country to the wealthy suburban Monied Burbs – whi

Below are three priorities that are helpful to me to evaluate a ministry strategy in reaching a people for Christ. These priorities are designed to be used for mission teams at churches, missionaries, local churches, and missionary want-to-be’s, and general do-gooders. Remember that a

Below are three priorities that are helpful to evaluate a ministry strategy in reaching a people for Christ. These priorities are designed for use with mission teams at churches, missionaries and missionary want-to-be’s, local churches, and general do-gooders. Remember, a key componen

Below are three priorities that are helpful to evaluate a ministry strategy in reaching a people for Christ. These priorities are designed for use with mission teams at churches, missionaries and missionary want-to-be’s, local churches, and general do-gooders. Remember, a key componen

Our church planting network is prioritizing eleven counties that have: Growing cities over 10,000 A growing population of over 40,000 in the county Has a university or college The map below shows our progress and plans:   Any input? Which are the priority cities in Iowa? See also

Click here to go to Pew Forum site. Observations: This is a Protestant map, if it were a Christian map the 75 million Catholics in the Philippines would make it the largest group. China has the largest protestant population in this region, estimate: 58 million or 4.3% of the populatio

In recent posts, we have explored reasons that missionaries should not be funded. When,then, should they be funded? The best method is for churches to develop their own criteria for funding. Perhaps a church can set a maximum amount, say 20%, of the missionary’s needs or $1000/month.

I’ve talked to a number of mission committee members about which missionaries their church supports financially. Many of them are not happy. Why? Reason #10, The missionary is on the field because they say they were “called” and can’t return home. A few years ago a missionary announce

I’ve talked to a number of mission committee members about which missionaries their church supports financially. Many of them are not happy. Why? Reason #9, We have always funded them, and we can’t abandon them now. When a new minister of missions or a new missions team gets in place,

I’ve talked to a number of mission committee members about which missionaries their church support financially. Many of them are not happy. Why? Reason #8: when missionaries can’t get the language. Language learning is difficult. A certain percentage of the population physically doesn

I have found that focusing on the church is a key way to get at the soundness of a ministry strategy. My foundational belief is that the church should be the center of evangelism, discipleship, meeting human needs, and ultimately, any missionary task. Here is what I mean: Strategy #5: