Why Most Church Plants Fail (And How to Build One That Multiplies)

Church Planting /

Every year, thousands of pastors dream of planting a church. They write vision statements, raise support, scout locations, and launch with excitement. Then, five years later, over 50% of those churches have closed their doors or plateaued into irrelevance. What’s going wrong? And more importantly—what’s the biblical alternative? The Copy-Paste Problem Jeff Hoglen, a veteran […]

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From Label to Life: Closing the Gap Between Claiming and Practicing Christianity

Faith /

Forty-three percent of Gen Z identifies with no religion at all. Yet sixty percent of all Americans still call themselves Christian. Something doesn’t add up. According to Barna’s latest research, we’ve reached a startling threshold: while 60% of U.S. adults claim Christian identity, only 24% qualify as “practicing Christians”—those who attend worship monthly and say

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Why Shared Leadership Unleashes Church Multiplication

Faith /

The most dangerous phrase in church planting isn’t ‘we don’t have enough money’ or ‘we can’t find a building.’ It’s this: ‘Pastor knows best.’ Over the past three decades, a quiet revolution has reshaped the healthiest growing churches in America—and it has nothing to do with worship styles, sermon series, or social media strategy. According

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The Surprising Power of ‘Shallow’ Christian Friendships

Faith /

We live in an age of authenticity obsession. Every coffee meetup must be ‘vulnerable.’ Every small group demands ‘deep sharing.’ We’ve convinced ourselves that unless someone knows our childhood trauma, our financial struggles, and our secret fears, the relationship barely counts. But what if this obsession with intimacy is actually starving our churches? The Biblical

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Learning to Plant Again: Recovering Psalm, Word, and Multiplication in an Age of Church Decline

Church Planting /

What we’re discovering about church planting in the CRC—and why we can’t stop trying The Conversation That Keeps Happening It usually starts over coffee. Or after a service. Or in a text message that reads: “Can we talk about your church planting vision?” I’ve had this conversation dozens of times now. Sometimes it’s with a

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When the Wind Blows: What the SEU Outpouring Means for the Church

Faith /

550 students stood outside a chapel at midnight, waiting in the Florida February chill. Classes had been cancelled. Faculty joined undergraduates on their knees. For fifteen minutes, 2,300 students called out their sins into the silence—pornography, fear, anger, adultery, abortion—while a livestream went viral and the nation watched. Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida has become

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The Generation Everyone Gave Up On Is Finding Jesus

Faith /

For years, the panic was palpable. Gen Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—was leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. They were the ‘nones,’ the disaffiliated, the spiritually indifferent. While Millennials asked questions about faith, Gen Z seemed to shrug and scroll past. But something unexpected is happening on university campuses across America. The Silence Is

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The Church Under Fire: Responding to Rising Aggression with Gospel Resilience

Faith /

What happens when the place you go for refuge becomes a target? In January 2026, Windwood Free Will Baptist Church in Oklahoma City—a community cornerstone serving as a voting precinct, school pickup site, and tornado relief center for 30 years—was vandalized and set on fire. Graffiti scarred its walls, flames gutted its interior. Yet the

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The Masculinity Crisis in the Church: Why Men Are Leaving and the Manosphere Is Winning

Faith /

Picture this: a young man scrolls through his feed, bombarded by Andrew Tate’s bravado and Jordan Peterson’s calls to responsibility. He’s hungry for purpose, strength, something that makes him feel like a man in a world that seems to have forgotten what that means. Now imagine he walks into your average church on Sunday. What

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Stop Treating Church Like Networking — The Surprising Power of ‘Shallow’ Friendships

Faith /

The loneliness epidemic is killing us. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, loneliness carries the same health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. A 2023 Cigna study found that 58% of Americans report feeling lonely, with young adults experiencing the highest rates. We’re more connected than ever — and more isolated than we’ve ever

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