Seeking to develop strategies to prevent formerly active members from leaving through the so-called “back door,” LifeWay Research has conducted surveys to better understand why people leave.
Many churches and denominations put a lot of effort into attracting new members only to lose many of them through a “back door”— a term used to describe people who regularly attended a church in the past but stopped.
Jon Acuff is the author of the satirical blog Stuff Christians Like and a book by the same title published by Zondervan. In about two years, Acuff has taken a start-up blog from obscurity to more than 1.5 million readers, including many who interact loyally
Planting new churches in places where none exists, or reaching specific culture groups, can result in changed lives and the expansion of God’s kingdom. But it takes flexibility to adapt to each new work’s context.
Churches that do a good job of including members with special needs like autism often reap side benefits of a positive witness to their community and sometimes even numerical growth, says an expert in disability ministries.
A longtime advocate for people with disabilities said the greatest barriers to including special-needs individuals in churches are not architectural or language but rather barriers of attitude.
People with disabilities don’t want churches that just “welcome” them, but rather congregations that value them and include them in living a “full life of faith,” a long-time advocate for special-needs ministry said.
Payday loan outlets have grown like kudzu in recent years. Texas has more payday lender outlets—about 3,000—than it has McDonald’s and Whataburger restaurants combined.
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- On the eve of a bipartisan summit on health-care reform in the nation's capital, thousands of people of faith signed a letter urging the White House and Congress to "complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left
Last year, 239 children professed faith in Christ. Not in a revival or a church program. In fact, many of these new believers had rarely been inside a church building. The kids came to know Christ through something they love — sports.
