Most of us try to prepare for retirement. We try to put at least a little something away. Unfortunately, many of us get to retirement age and realize we are not prepared to finish well. Additionally, those of us in career ministry often have made our ministry our life. The result is we are often not ready financially, personally, and even spiritually for the next step in life. We have no succession plan for ourselves or for the church.

    It has been suggested that eighty percent of people who go to a counselor are struggling with change. When we encounter change the difficulties we face are often related to a lack faith and/or courage.  

    I often use a favorite quote from Rick Warren (author of Purpose Driven Church), “The wrong question is what will make our church grow?” “The right question is, “What is keeping our church from growing?” I think this is not only true for the church seeking to be victorious but also for personally living a victorious Christian life. The reality is in both living the Victorious Christian Life and being victorious in ministry we will need to face opposition and obstacles.

 Holidays and special seasons are great opportunities for the church to reach out to the community. Most churches respond by offering special services, often with great creativity. The response by the community is often positive and many non-church people attend the events. However, the results often don’t lead to church membership or even further attendance beyond the event. Following are a few thoughts for consideration as to why we may not be seeing the results we might hope for.