Pastors: are you throwing your hands in the air, ready to quit? Not sure where to go next in your ministry or what God is calling you to? Experiencing burnout or exhaustion? Whether you're a seasoned pastor or you're diving into your very first church plant, chances are slim that everything in your ministry has gone off without a hitch. Maybe you're at a point in your life where you simply feel... stuck. 

Eight times in scripture—from Exodus to Ephesians—God exhorts us to “honor our fathers.” And when something’s mentioned that many times in the Bible, it’s definitely worth noting. But what does honor really mean? The Greek word for honor means to revere, prize, and value highly. It’s a matter of giving high regard and respect to the person and position of fatherhood.

“The idea of multisite churches began as a bandaid solution for megachurches that found themselves out of room,” says Jim Tomberlin, founder of MultiSite Solutions.  

Church facilities matter. The people and the physical spaces that make up the church are conduits for connecting people to God and others. But the story has shifted over the past few decades.

In this season of gratitude, we'd like to give thanks to our 2016 Alignment Conference Partners, who not only help us host the annual event for senior pastors, executive pastors, elders, and ministry leaders, but who also play vital roles in serving all our clients throughout the year. All these companies help bring our church projects into better alignment.

I feel a deep sense of gratitude as we celebrate Thanksgiving. This year has been full of new growth on so many fronts.

Part of what a futurist does is try to find the invisible stories going on that we don't see immediately, but which can affect us. We're all operating with multiple stories simultaneously. I want to offer some vocabulary around these invisible stories, because the stories we’re part of have far-reaching implications for churches.

Today’s multisite church includes hybrid variations of the traditional one-church-in-multiple-locations model. Often, church planting is incorporated as part of a comprehensive growth strategy. These new approaches call for new skill sets and structures to support rapid growth and change.

Aspen Group's upcoming Alignment Conference has put the word alignment on my mind a lot lately. As ministries grow—and especially as churches pursue a multisite strategy—the opportunities for misalignment are many and pose threats to ministry success. Misalignment in mission, vision, leadership, and facilities can affect your ability to advance your church's purpose and grow God’s kingdom.

Many churches use a response card of some type as a tool for communication and connection, both with newcomers and existing members who want to learn more about a program or ministry. In our work at Intentional Churches, we're in churches of all sizes and types and have seen many variations. There is the bulletin insert, the attendance card in the back of the pew (one side for members, one side for non-members), and the simple program tear-out.