Disqus - Latest Comments for tpmorgan

Re: The Ultimate Guide to Delta Choice Benefits

tony morgan — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:15:33 -0000

I had the exact same experience. I have a stockpile of upgrade certificates that I've tried to use. With my Diamond status plus the certificates, I assumed this was a no-brainer selection for my choice benefits. I'll never do it again. The certificates are worthless. I recently tried to use one on flight from ATL to DFW. Every first class seat was still open, but I still had to be wait-listed. And, based on my experience, I still won't get the upgrade. Take the 20,000 bonus miles instead!

Re: 6 Signals a Church Must Change to Survive | The Unstuck Church

tony morgan — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 11:09:35 -0000

People take new jobs. They move to new locations. Looks like it's about 15% of people every year: http://avrickdirect.com/hom...

People also die. I understand that's roughly 100% of people at this point. :-)

That's what I meant by natural turnover. Good question.

Re: Early Signs Your Church Is Headed for Decline | The Unstuck Church

tony morgan — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 14:58:08 -0000

Joel, I agree with you completely. Thanks for sharing!

Re: When Large Churches Get Stuck: Letting the Staff Lead

tony morgan — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:16:42 -0000

You're correct. I don't have a fixed number. But, it's probably sooner rather than later. You'll know it when you've waited too long. Decision-making bogs down. Lay people are spending a lot of time talking about ministry rather than doing ministry. Paid staff have been added to handle day-to-day functions and make decisions that once required a committee of volunteers. At that point, it's time to move to a structure that will better facilitate health and growth.

Re: Measuring Church Health: Are we understaffed or overstaffed?

tony morgan — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 17:44:14 -0000

Yes. All paid staff.

Re: When Big Personalities Lead Big Churches

tony morgan — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 11:20:48 -0000

Assuming the church has elders and/or overseers, they should eventually come from the congregation rather than other pastors or leaders outside the church. This is difficult for church plants, but eventually the lay leadership providing encouragement and accountability for the senior pastor should come from within the church.

Re: The Priscilla Principle

tony morgan — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 09:53:48 -0000

Thank you Travis!

Re: The Priscilla Principle

tony morgan — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 09:53:19 -0000

Thanks Gary. Hope it encourages them as well.

Re: Continuing the Conversation: Front Door and Back Door Challenges

tony morgan — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 21:01:48 -0000

I'm seeing churches have more success connecting with first-time guests as they're entering the church. When the weather is appropriate, some churches are actually positioning stations with obvious "First time here?" signage just outside their main entrances. That's the first opportunity, but you also need to continue to be intentional about capturing first-timer info through your website, connection cards, contribution path, kid's check-in, groups/volunteer connections, event sign-ups, etc. Every touch point is critical to starting a relationship and helping someone take their next step.

Re: Complexity: Streamlining the Ministry Event Calendar

tony morgan — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 10:10:54 -0000

Johnny, I don't think it's healthy when churches schedule so many events that people not engaging in the community. As Christ-followers, we are still all on mission to reach people for Jesus. It's hard to do that if we're only engaged in events with other Christ-followers.

Re: Multisite Messages: Why Churches Should Choose Video Over Multiple Live Teachers

tony morgan — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 11:01:05 -0000

Alex, we've not found video teaching as a deterrent to contextualization. My guess is that LifeChurch, as an example, would also confirm that. They have campuses in a variety of communities in seven different states. In most instances, the campus pastor and other local leaders are also engaged in the service experience and able to communicate anything unique to the location. Of course, it's the people living out their mission with their neighbors, co-workers, friends that provide the real contextualization.

Re: A Rant About Leadership and Planning

tony morgan — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:23:24 -0000

Even on small teams, someone probably has administrative gifting. You just need to identify and empower them to use their gifts as well. A good tool to confirm whether or not someone has this wiring is Leading From Your Strengths: http://www.instantinsights....

Re: A Rant About Leadership and Planning

tony morgan — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:14:59 -0000

Thanks Gene! :-)

Re: 12 Questions on Job Satisfaction

tony morgan — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:48:12 -0000

Graham, what's interesting is that this article is from eight years ago, but "job satisfaction" is still one of the top searches for my site because of this article. So, whether it's engagement or satisfaction, it still must be a huge felt need. I suspect people are generally not satisfied with their current jobs.

Re: 7 Reasons Why Small Churches Get Stuck

tony morgan — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:43:11 -0000

Wesley, as I alluded to in the article, I think that value can be leveraged. You'll just need to be really intentional about making sure outsiders are still welcome. And, I don't think "knowing everyone" should ever become a higher priority than reaching new people.

Re: 7 Reasons Why Small Churches Get Stuck

tony morgan — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 15:29:58 -0000

I agree. I just want to help more people becoming disciples of Jesus. He changed my life.

Re: 7 Reasons Why Small Churches Get Stuck

tony morgan — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:27:24 -0000

Nathan, I just want to help all churches, regardless of their size, reach more people for Jesus. I want all churches to make more disciples. And, whether a church is 200 or 20,000, if that's not happening, in my opinion, the church is stuck.

Re: 7 Reasons Why Small Churches Get Stuck

tony morgan — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:19:45 -0000

I agree. I think both are contributing factors.

Re: 7 Reasons Why Small Churches Get Stuck

tony morgan — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:18:12 -0000

Kathleen, it sounds like your husband is an incredible man. I wouldn't change a thing. -Tony

Re: 6 Church Structure Issues I See All the Time

tony morgan — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 10:31:15 -0000

I haven't heard the podcast, so I can't speak to that. You'll have to remember, I have a biblical bias. As Christ-followers, we all have unique spiritual gifts that shape who we are and how we contribute to our mission as the body of Christ. With that in mind, we still believe there's merit to helping people leverage those gifts in ministry.

Though I don't have research to prove it, my experience over the last 25 years is that people add more value to the team when they are operating in roles that best fit how they're wired up. The team is healthy, and people are more fulfilled.

Re: Measuring Church Health: How much money should people give?

tony morgan — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 10:05:56 -0000

It would be great if we could start the conversation here so that others could participate as well.

Re: Team Health: Skip the Core Values and Develop Team Values Instead?

tony morgan — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 20:16:54 -0000

I would consider our five values that I linked to above to be our team values. For our group, they serve both as team and core values.

Re: How The Orchard Church Grows Despite People Attending Less Frequently: Fast-Growing UMC Churches (Part 1)

tony morgan — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:36:36 -0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It'll be interesting to see how these churches we will be highlighting align with the trends you've noticed.

Re: Programs, Paths and Healthy Church Growth

tony morgan — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 21:31:42 -0000

Sorry. I can't go into depth on every topic in every article. If you search "discipleship" on my site, though, you'll find several related articles on that topic.

Re: Programs, Paths and Healthy Church Growth

tony morgan — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 09:04:59 -0000

Ideally whatever path you land on will work for all ages.