Month: July 2019

11 Steps to Reach the Next Generation

On any given Sunday morning, one-third of the attenders at Malvern Hill are 18 years old or younger. We are a medium sized church on the edge of a small city. Currently, we average around 300 in worship, and you can almost guarantee that if we have 300 in worship this Sunday, 100 of them will be 18 or under. There are unique challenges that come with being a church filled with young people–primarily that those who are 18 and under do not normally tithe– but there are of course incredible blessings. Young people bring life and joy and they are the present and the future of the church.

A Healthy Church: Putting the Pieces Together

Is your church healthy? Does it have a foundation that can lead to growth and faithfulness? Are there healthy practices and commitments within your church that interact with other practices and commitments to lead to organizational health and faithfulness? These five components are essential for a healthy church:

Preach Christ

Jesus is enough to carry and sustain the worn-out souls of your hearers. They come to the altar of God’s word week in and week out to be refreshed and encouraged. You have been given the gift of preaching for the edifying—the building up—of your local church. They come in beat-down and tired. The worries of financial strife, the struggles of wayward children, the back-biting of a secular workplace, and the thorns and thistles of sinful creation all work in a sort of unholy symphony to burden God’s image-bearers. Given the opportunity, this unholy symphony will actually drown out the siren call of Calvary.