Andy Rowell

Category: Church Growth

  • Eight considerations when looking for a new church

    On choosing a church or church shopping:
    1. Faithfulness. A church that teaches the Bible with humility and integrity.
    2. Mission: A church that has a heart for at least some outsiders: the poor, immigrant, the single parent, etc. Different churches have different groups they reach out to.

    3. Atmosphere. What are the values that surface on the website and especially in person regarding wealth, race, and women?
    4. Proximity. Ideally there is overlap in your worlds (where you live, where kids go to school, where you shop with where you attend church).

    5. Collaboration. Usually there is a board and staff and there should be accountability and collaboration.
    6. Sobriety. There should be thoughtful protocols about counting the offering, annual transparency about the the finances, and precautions regarding child abuse.

    7. Theological care. I want to know if the pastor(s) did seminary and where. Ideally they have an MDiv from a reputable school. The statement of faith should not be weird.

    8. Resonance with the Christian tradition that this church is part of. Likely the visitor has inclinations regarding theological tradition (Pentecostal, liturgical, casual contemporary evangelical, etc).

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on August 17, 2021.

  • Thoughts on closing a church with declining attendance

    Thread below on the story that made the rounds yesterday: "Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners."

    First thread:

    https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1220057235432210432

     

    Last thread: 

    https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1220058532289994752

     

    PDF of thread: 

    Download Usher out gray-haired members

  • What should local missional outreach look like?

    A key question churches struggle with is what missional outreach looks like in their local area. Many Christians feel their church is not doing "evangelism" OR "social justice" well. I think that there needs to be local analysis. Is violence, water, food, housing, medical, employment, education a major need in the local community because government is failing? Or is the locale wealthy and therefore struggling with meaninglessness, depression, loneliness, and broken relationships? These local realities and needs will shape the nature of local church outreach. In other words, biblical and theological convictions will not be the sole factor in what a local church's local outreach looks like. The context will also factor in. Paul's Gentile churches reached out to wealthy Roman citizens differently than James's Jerusalem church's care for the poor. Paul also collected offerings from the Gentle churches for the Jerusalem church. This is an example of churches reaching beyond their locale.

    This is a Twitter thread by Andy Rowell

    produced by https://tinysubversions.com/spooler/