There is one spiritual discipline that increases engagement in every other spiritual discipline. In the research behind Transformational Discipleship, we discovered that when someone is engaged in studying the Bible, participation in every other spiritual discipline is positively impacted. While the other spiritual disciplines are important, engagement in one of these (from a research vantage point)…
Community
Are Christians Worse Than Others at Relationships?
In the later part of 2014, LifeWay Research conducted a poll of an ethnically and religiously diverse sampling of Americans. The research gauged each participant’s perspective on his or her relationships through a series of questions. The responses from Evangelical Christians polled during the survey were surprising. Evangelicals were 14-21% more likely to strongly agree…
3 Things You Miss When Your Groups Aren’t Aligned
The following post is by Brandon Hiltibidal, and it originally appeared on LifeWay’s Church Leaders blog. Brandon is a former church planter and multi-site pastor. He is part of the Groups Ministry team at LifeWay Christian Resources. He and his wife have two little girls. You can read about his groups ministry and his girls on Twitter: @bmhiltibidal….
The Unconnected in Your Church
On Christmas day, some neighbors in a small town in Illinois were surprised to discover that one of their neighbors, Sunatha Simmons, had died. Not only did they learn of her death, but they also learned that she had been dead in her home for more than a year. Her family came to visit from…
Stuart Scott on the Beauty of Community
Stuart Scott was to me as Johnny Carson was to my parents. For the last twenty years, on nights when I would watch TV, it was often SportsCenter with Stuart Scott. Hearing “boo-yah,” “lobbing the alley, freaking the oop,” or “as cool as the other side of the pillow” made the highlights more special than…
3 Pseudo-Communities in a Local Church
We are prone to build community on something other than Jesus, on something weak. Even as Christians, there is a proclivity in our sinfulness to drift from Jesus as the unifying foundation of our community. When we don’t build community on Christ and His work for us, we will build community on something less. In…
A New Way to Develop Aligned Group Content: Smallgroup.com
This week, churches across the world will not only meet together to sing songs of the faith and sit under the preaching of God’s Word; they will also meet in homes and classrooms to study, share, confess, and pray for each other in groups. These groups matter greatly as God uses community to mature His…
When a Church Stops Reaching Its Community
The following is a guest post by Dr. Thom Rainer. Thom Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, and my boss. Other than leading LifeWay, he is a respected researcher, former pastor, and author of more than 20 books, including many best sellers, such as I Am a Church Member and his…
4 Essentials in Ministry to Men
Not every healthy church has a formalized “men’s ministry,” but every healthy church ministers to men. Ministry to men must be a priority and a passion, not merely a program. If a formalized “men’s ministry” works best in a specific context, then the leaders should implement it, but it is possible to minister well to…
5 Current Church Views of “Discipleship”
I have been in many settings with church leaders where the question was posed, “What is your church doing for discipleship?” I am grateful that church leaders are asking questions about the church’s fundamental mission—making disciples. After all, a church can excel at anything and everything else, but if the church fails to make disciples,…