What Healthy Churches Will Look Like in 10 Years

Podcast Episode #252

Healthy churches of tomorrow will likely reflect these characteristics.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

• Pastoral longevity doesn’t guarantee health in a church, but a series of short pastorates almost guarantees an unhealthy church.
• Most churches that have consistent health have consistent leadership.
• Many Millennial pastors don’t see church hopping or ladder climbing as part of their future.
• As culture becomes more hostile to churches, you church’s community presence becomes more important.
• New members’ classes allow you to instill an outward focus into new members in the church.
• Setting expectations and providing information are essential to assimilation into the life of the church.
• The more adversity a church has, the more opportunities for gospel witness it has.
• The assimilation rate for someone connected to a group is five times higher than someone attending worship alone.
• When people are excited about their church, they naturally invite others to come.

The 10 signs of healthy churches 10 years from now are:

1. They have the same pastor they did ten years ago.
2. The pastor, staff, and church members have a decade of calling to the local community.
3. The church will be as diverse as the community.
4. The church will have responded to its international mission field in its own backyard for ten years.
5. The church will have had a consistent and strategic outward focus for a decade.
6. All new members the past ten years will have attended a new members’ class.
7. The church will have seen the cultural changes of the decade as opportunities rather than threats.
8. At least 80 percent of the worship attendance will have moved to a small group over the decade.
9. At least 50 percent of the attendance will have invited at least four people to church each year.
10. Every year for ten years these churches will have become more joyous and fun.

Episode Sponsors

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Feedback

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Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

• Ten Traits of the Healthiest Churches Ten Years from Now
• Invite Your One
• Evangelism in the Early Church
• For the Church Conference