Change's biggest bang for buck
Nothing will improve your church more and encounter less resistance than improving your preaching.
If two million miles on the road has taught me anything, it has taught me this: preaching matters. Churches with good preachers tend to do well. Churches without good preachers tend to suffer. My experience is consistent with Rainer’s research:
Consistently we heard the members of the breakout churches tell us that one of the key reasons their church is experiencing a positive momentum is the consistent quality preaching of the senior pastor.
It is often emphasized that the great revival movements were bathed in prayer, and they were. They were also led by a skilled preacher.
People will rarely resist you in your efforts to improve your preaching. They might fight you if you change the music, but they will not show the least resistance when you set your heart to being a better preacher.
One more benefit of good preaching: it will make all other changes easier. When people appreciate that they are being fed each week, they are more likely to put up with your quirky ideas about music. On the other hand, if the preaching is mediocre, they will be looking for an excuse to complain.
Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).
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