Good Ideas For Churches

How can we help someone who is deconstructing their faith? That is a critical question for any church leader today, and the topic of this episode.

My guest is Ian Harber, who was gracious enough to share his own story of deconstructing and rebuilding his faith in Jesus. Ian is part of the Truth Over Tribe team, and writes at Back Again with Ian Harber at https://ianharber.substack.com/. He also starts lots of interesting conversations over @ianharber on Twitter.

Ian has also put together a playlist of resources that helped him rebuild his faith on Spotify, titled Reconstructing Your Faith - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1nSlmL6Fh3EdZzv1nxHPxZ.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Special Episode for Pastor Appreciation Month!

I'd love to pray for you and your minstry by name. Reach out and let me know what I can pray for.

Here's Matt's original video.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

In this episode I talk with Dr. Joshua Chatraw about his book, Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age. We all have underlying stories that we use to make sense of our lives, and the gospel story is the only one that really meets all our longings.

Dr. Chatraw is executive director of the Center for Public Christianity, lead teacher for New City Fellows, and theologian-in-residence at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh, NC.

I also tell on myself for trying to order cocaine in Brazil.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

This episode is about church revitalization. How can we see new life breathed into a local church?

Many thanks to Gary Kniseley for taking the time to share his story with us! Gary is the pastor of Maywood Evangelical Free Church in Rockford, IL.

The stats I mentioned. A couple highlights:

- 70% of churches are plateaued or in decline.

- Only 7% of churches have helped launch a new congregation ever.

- Those churches who have helped start more than one new congregation were statistically 0% for this study.

Some other interesting surveys that ask the question differently, specifically related to membership (not necessarily participation).

Membership trends for U.S. individuals from a Gallup study.

Membership trends among some protestant denominations.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

How do you evaluate your ministries? When is the time to quit something or double down? Matt Whitman joined me to share a plan he used to answer these questions called a Ministry Audit.

If you'd like a free PDF outlining how to do a Ministry Audit, email me at [email protected].

Matt is the host of The Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube & podcast, The Ironwood Rhino podcast, and co-hosts the No Dumb Questions podcast with Destin Sandlin.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Karl Vaters joined me to discuss how to manage change in the church in ways that spiritually healthy.

Karl is pastor at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, CA, the author of several books, and the host of the Can This Work In a Small Church podcast.

His book, Small Church Essentials, was the jumping off point for our conversation today.

You can follow his other work here, or at @KarlVaters on Twitter.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Super big thanks to Daryl Paluch of The Tennis Center of the Black Hills for coming out to play ball with us! His work gives us a great picture of what we often refer to as church assimilation.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Special thanks to Shane Heilman for joining me to share his wisdom about disarming tension and conflict before it becomes a problem.

Shane is the Producer and Chief Songwriter for the Psalms Project, where he is putting every psalm to music.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Special thanks to Jon Sanders for joining me on this episode! You can check out his learning community at EntrePastors.com.

He also is a ministry coach for The 95 Network.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.

Loon Mountain Ministry began as an outreach in a resort town in Lincoln, NH, but grew into much more. They've done a ton of creative things to share the love of Christ all over their community.

Special thanks to Nathan Jenkins for joining me to share their story. He serves as one of their pastors. You can see more of what they do at loonmtnministry.com.

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up.