Rainer on Leadership

Thom and Sam received a question from a regular listener. Henry from Ontario wanted to know how pastors can best recognize faithful members serving in areas of the church that are often unnoticed. For example, the only time the church notices the tech team is when something goes wrong in the worship service. Most people who serve behind the scenes do not want public recognition. How can the church...

Sam welcomes Ann White, an internationally known author, speaker, Christian TV Host, passionate Bible teacher, Founder and CEO of Courage For Life. Her passion is to equip and encourage people from all walks of life to embrace their God-given courage for life. They discuss the need to have resources available to help people grow both spiritually and emotionally.

You can't reach your community unless you know your community. On this week's episode, Thom and Sam discuss the most often missed community demographics and why they are important.

Sam welcomes father-daughter duo and theologians Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. In their book “Pivot,” Scot and Laura help churches to implement practices, establish priorities, and cultivate gospel-centered qualities that form goodness cultures. Scot is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. Laura is a teacher and coauthored “A Church Called Tov” with Scot.

Every pastor should take a vacation. But pastors can struggle with knowing how much vacation they should take and how long they should be away. Thom discusses best practices with vacation time.

How effective are new mover ministries, particularly those where a card is mailed to every new mover in a specified area? Thom and Sam look at some early results they gleaned.

In the conclusion of this special series on recreation ministry, Thom and Sam talk about the future of recreation ministries in churches. More churches will restart their sports programs. Now is the time to begin. The future is bright!

Thom and Sam continue their special series on recreation ministry. Many church leaders bemoan how sports can pull people away from the church. But what if sports can be used to draw people into the body of Christ? Sports can just as easily work for you. The co-hosts explain how on this episode.

On this special episode, Thom and Sam discuss the history of recreation ministry in churches and why it’s poised for a comeback. Sports are massively popular in culture right now. Churches can use this popularity as a big ministry opportunity.

How a pastor dresses is ultimately much less important than teaching sound doctrine and caring for the congregation. But people do notice what you wear. Should pastors dress up on Sunday since they are leaders? Or should they try to blend in with the congregation and be more relatable? Thom and Sam discuss these questions on this episode.

Sam Rainer takes a different role in this podcast as Thom interviews him about the remarkable story of West Bradenton Baptist Church, a neighborhood church that is making a big difference in its community.

Some churches have the uncanny ability to prolong infighting for decades. Other congregations get to a point where the fighting creates collective exhaustion. Thom and Sam discuss what happens when a church stops fighting because everyone is tired.

At Church Answers we love a good turnaround story, especially when a struggling church gets healthy and begins to thrive. On this episode, Thom and Sam interview Gary Moritz of City United Church in Lunenburg, MA. This comeback story is incredibly inspirational.

Charitable giving is up—a near record of $485 billion in 2021, despite surging inflation. However, giving to churches has dropped even though giving to non-profits is up by 4%. In the early 1980s, churches received over half of all charitable giving. Today, churches receive less than a third of all charitable giving. Mike Stadelmayer joins Sam to discuss what’s going on with these trends.

Interest rates are rising, and some churches are experiencing an increase in debt service payments. Mike Stadelmayer of Church Growth Services joins Sam for a special series on generosity. On this episode they discuss the controversial topic of debt and how churches can avoid holding too much debt for too long.

How strong is the financial foundation of churches today? Mike Stadelmayer of Church Growth Services joins Sam for a special series on generosity. In this important interview, Mike shares three megatrends affecting every church.

Thom and Sam welcome Jeff Gissing, Acquisitions Director for Tyndale Bibles, to discuss a unique and powerful telling of the gospel, “God With Us”. An ordained Presbyterian Pastor, he enjoys teaching High Sunday School and leading a small group at his local church.

One of the key reasons many churches are not growing today is that many of their church members do not know the essentials of the Christian faith. Thom and Sam examine this phenomenon and offer key steps for the church to move forward.

It seems that every church that has a renewed emphasis on prayer sees greater health in all areas of the church. Thom and Sam share how effective praying churches have motivated and equipped members for more powerful prayer.

On this week's episode, Thom and Sam discuss why the typical church must replace a third of its congregation every year to maintain the same number of attendees. Most pastors feel this problem, but the Church Answers team has data on the issue.

Todd Brown is the CEO of Brown Church Development Group, a national church design/build firm. In this three-part podcast series, we will look at the components of a church master plan. We will also get a high-level overview of the master plan. In this third part, we talk with Todd about the key critical issues of a church master plan.

Todd Brown is the CEO of Brown Church Development Group, a national church design/build firm. In this three-part podcast series, we will look at the components of a church master plan. We will also get a high-level overview of the master plan. In this second part, we talk with Todd about what it means to right-size your church.

Todd Brown is the CEO of Brown Church Development Group, a national church design/build firm. In this three-part podcast series, we will look at the components of a church master plan. We will also get a high-level overview of the master plan. In this first part, we talk with Todd about the concept of "paths" in a church.

Thom and Sam share five reasons why pastors above the age of 70 will become increasingly common.

There are essentially three groups of people who attend churches: the committed Christians; the casual Christians, and the cultural Christians. Thom and Sam look at each of these groups and offer a sobering prediction: the casual Christians will be the next wave of departures in churches.