Avoiding the Numbers Trap

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Written by Jim Graff

U.S. churches define success by size. It's time to break the mold.

Counting The Cost

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Written by Miles McPherson

Measuring your ministry will help to increase its impact

I’m a numbers guy. I love to challenge people with goals we can measure. So when God called the Rock Church to be “first responders” in sharing God’s love in the community, naturally I looked for ways to measure our success.

First, some background. I started the Rock Church in San Diego in 2000. By God’s grace it has grown to be the city’s largest, averaging 12,500 worshippers each Sunday. With that comes some incredible opportunities and challenges. The biblical stances we have taken on politically charged debates sometimes put the Rock in opponents’ cross hairs. But they also open doors to ministry and to relationships with community leaders.

San Diego County is approximately the size of the state of Connecticut. Like many regions in the United States these days, we’re facing serious budget cuts and reduced services. Likewise, the city of San Diego, the eighth largest in the U.S., is hurting. One out of every 10 people are without work, and more than 12 percent live below the poverty line.

Is Yours a Welcoming Church?

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Written by Mary Hutchinson

Two years ago I moved to southern New Hampshire with my family. Prior to that, we had been involved deeply in a church plant for almost a decade—serving in leadership, developing marketing tools, and loving the people in that community like family.

Losing that family was hard; trying to find a new church home was even harder. For more than two years, I visited approximately 20 churches within a half hour from my new home. These churches ranged from tiny (40 people) to huge (more than 3,000). They were evangelical, mainline, charismatic, denominational and independent. I heard hard rock gospel music, traditional hymns set to organ music and everything in between.

Tracking With Jesus' Mission

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Written by Steve Pike

A friend of mine who pastors a church of 120 people in a town of 1,000 recently told me about a strange encounter he had with a megachurch pastor in another area about what constitutes a megachurch. The megachurch pastor led a church of 10,000 in a town of 600,000 and told my friend that if your church was reaching at least 1 percent of the population of your town, then you were leading a megachurch.

His assertion made my friend wonder if this was really true or was it just faulty logic. He asked this pastor how he would classify a church that was reaching 12 percent of the town’s population. The pastor was stunned.

“Who is doing that?” he asked.

“Our church is consistently running 120 people in a small town of 1,000!” my friend responded. To which the megachurch pastor quickly replied, “Yes, but that’s a different model .”

Lou Engle Calls Switzerland to Intercession

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Written by Gina Meeks

Lou Engle's movement, TheCall, is gathering in Switzerland next month, and he's urging the nation to participate in intercession and fasting.

TheCall Geneva will convene at various locations Dec. 8-12 with a goal to invoke spiritual transformation.

Engle, co-founder of TheCall solemn assemblies, is part of the leadership team at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo. He wrote in an email: “We want to alert you—the faithful fiery praying friends around the world—to join us on this strategic day. God is orchestrating a convergence of believers including modern day reformers from around the world to join us specifically on December 8th for 12 hours of fasting and prayer.”

Rick Warren: The Four Laws of God’s Blessing

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Written by Rick Warren

Here are the four laws of God's blessing:

1. Our blessings should flow to others. The Bible teaches us that we are blessed not just so that we can feel good, not just so we can be happy and comfortable, but so that we will bless others. God told Abraham in Genesis 12:2, “I will bless you ... and you will be a blessing” (NIV). This is the first law of blessing: It must flow outwardly.

How do you bless others? By serving a need, whether it is physical or emotional support, financial help, or practical advice. "Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand" (Philippians 1:4 MSG).