A lot goes in a name. And a whole lot goes into naming or re-naming a church. I remember when my friend Frank Santora from Danbury, CT, renamed his church. They went from Bright Clouds Ministries (not an Indian reservation) to Faith Church. Well that was a big win for them. I don’t think anyone in congregation complained; again, why would they? One of the frequent questions I get from church leaders has to do with their church’s name. But before you go out  and change your congregation’s name, here are a few thoughts to consider: Make sure you have a compelling reason to change the name. Name changes are traumatic. The older the congregation, the more emotional equity a name has. For example, it doesn’t make sense to be “Hunter Street Baptist Church” if you’re moving to Michigan Avenue. A name change is warranted here, or if your church…

Churches stop growing or they plateau for several reasons, too many for one blog post. So I’m tackling them in a series of posts featuring growth barriers for churches I have encountered during years of strategic consulting. I’m calling these posts “Churches Won’t Grow When.”  While some of the issues that keep churches from growing can be classified as communication barriers, in my experience, the most debilitating ones are leadership and systematic mistakes that will derail growth or even kill a congregation. Interestingly, these apply to business and ministries as well. Your church will stop growing when its leader put his or her interests before what’s best for the congregation. I call it the superstar syndrome. I have seen this one play out time and time again. These are gifted communicators who are able to draw large crowds but can never get past making personal sacrifices for the sake of…

For the Friday post I’m going back to a place where I know and love well and where fun material abounds: the church. How many times have you driven by a church sign that, while well intentioned, it was, let’s just say, poorly executed. These signs speak for themselves even when we wish they wouldn’t. What’s the worst church sign you can remember?

Every church movement in America, and around the world for that matter, has its share of critics. Friday morning I read a Wall Street Journal article by Brett McCracken on the perils of what he entitles “Hipster Christianity” . In this summary of his recently-released book, which I have not yet read, Mr. McCracken condemns Christian leaders for trying too hard “to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant.” He even names a few churches as examples of what he calls “cool churches,” saying at the close of his article that “as a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.” I’m glad Mr. McCracken knows what he and his generation want, but whose job is to define what a “real” church looks like? Mr. McCracken and his generation of anti-hipsters? The Baby Boomers and their love…