by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 7/12/20. Pictured below is the pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation preaching to the entire congregation. This reminds the church of its diversity, plus gives it a opportunity to experience the anointing of diverse leaders within … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: Revitalizing an organization (such as a church) requires creating a new sub-organization while preserving the best attributes of the existing organization. There are few places these principle are spelled out better than in two new books, … Continue reading
by Aaron Earls, Facts & Trends, LifeWay, 3/29/16. Why Megachurches Go Small Larger churches often recognize what small churches might miss—there are advantages to being little. Through small groups, multisite campuses, and now microsites, those megachurches are attempting to continue … Continue reading
When Big Goes Small: How Large Churches Are Learning From Those With Less by Aaron Earls, Facts & Trends, LifeWay, 3/29/16. …In the last five years, the typical megachurch’s main sanctuary decreased in size from 1,500 seats to a median … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 9/24/15. A sub-congregation is a group within the church, that functions, in Asbury Professor George Hunter’s words, as “a church within a church.” (For a definition of a sub-congregation, click HERE) A student once responded, … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min. Ph.D., 2/5/15. Are you the leader of a small church who doesn’t feel you have enough people to launch a new worship service? Well actually you probably already have the “seeds” of a new worship service … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 2012, excerpted from Cure for the Common Church: God’s Plan to Restore Church Health (Wesleyan Publishing House). The cure for the ingrown church is to keep a church focused both inward and outward. In fact, history indicates that churches that … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., Biblical Leadership Magazine, 3/20/19. Millennial leadership recognizes the need for cultural sensitivity, awareness and autonomy. Though there is a healthy respect for different traditions, there is also a concern that the body of Christ not … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 2/19/17. A student once asked, “I am picturing a situation where a large church wants to plant an (independent) daughter church because they have a growing sub-congregation in the church that is mostly Hispanic, or … Continue reading
I was honored to learn today that Fuller PhD students are using charts/figures from my The Healthy Church book. Below is the ‘grid” and analysis of a “BOOK ©Whitesel EXCERPT – HEALTHY CHURCH Multicultural Models” from The Healthy Church: Practical … Continue reading
“A key to respecting indigenous art forms is to connect the Good News via the most appropriate communication modality for the people we are reaching… Biblically speaking, it thus seems best to see a worship gathering as a time of … Continue reading
Bob Whitesel, D.Min. Ph.D., Associate Professor of Missional Leadership, Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, Journal of the Great Commission Research Network, Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 2010. Abstract This article is an abbreviation of research originally presented to Dr. … Continue reading
(The following is excerpted from Bob Whitesel’s chapter, “St. Tom’s: From Gathered to Scattered” in Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibb’s book, Gospel After Christendom: New Voices, New Cultures, New Expressions [Baker Academic, 2012]). From Gathered to Scattered: a Dispersed Missional … Continue reading
by Mark DeYmaz, Mosiax Conference at Exponential East, 4/25/17. Donald McGavran suggested that the healthy church was heterogeneous, but with homogeneous cells (or sub congregations). But the homogeneous unit principle (HUP) which is defined that people “like to become Christians without … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 2/19/17. I want leaders to consider “external” and “internal” planting a bit more as they strategize the future of their ministry. External planting is a somewhat typical semi-autonomous church plant by a mother church. Internal … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 2/19/17. A student once asked, “I am picturing a situation where a large church wants to plant an (independent) daughter church because they have a growing sub-congregation in the church that is mostly Hispanic, or … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: I help churches become multiethnic. But I’ve often found a subtle resistance in some Anglo churches to partnering with Asian American sub-congregations. This article points out that such reticence may be because the perceived success of … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel. The following article of mine was republished in the inaugural issue of The Journal of the Academy for Intercultural Church Research (AICR). I highly encourage anyone interested in reliable and valid articles on multicultural churches and … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: The following comparisons of leadership style changes relevant to church size, were compiled by cohort MDIVO-24 from their research for the course LEAD 600: Church Leadership, 9/28/16. Church Size Keep at this size by… Grow out … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 6/29/16. To lead an organization, you must first understand how the organization “behaves” and then begin to “manage” the “organizational behavior.” Here are comments about church organizational size, behavior and management edited together here from … Continue reading
