Sam Rainer's Blog

Church revitalization is not new. In one sense, it is as old as the church itself. The New Testament is filled with corporate calls to repentance, renewal, and reform. If ever a church needed revitalization, it was Corinth, a chaotic congregation filled with controversy.

What is newer is the formal study of revitalization as a ministry discipline. For years, these churches were more often described as “comeback churches” or “turnaround churches,” and the work was often misunderstood. Many assume...

I came of age as a major shift in American religiosity was underway. The church was at an inflection point. My peers and I didn’t notice it because we had no frame of reference, but we were living through it.

Ryan Burge was the first to point out that the period from 1991 to 1998 was the “most consequential period of American religious history in the past five decades.” We’re close in age, so I resonated with his analysis. We teamed up and hosted a 90-minute webinar on the 1990s and American rel...

When I started in ministry, I was a below-average pastor, probably far below average. I consulted mentors, read leadership books, and prayed for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. It still took me years to improve. 

Leadership literature is chock-full of ways an average leader can become great. Most of us assume we’re at least reasonably good. Greatness is just a book, a conference, or a degree away. I believe run-of-the-mill leaders can improve with training. A desire to learn, self-awareness, and a s...

I was walking to my Tuesday banking class on the University of South Carolina campus. As I entered the Darla Moore School of Business, I could tell a major event was occurring. People were crowded around televisions. The silence was eerie. I went to class. 

About halfway through the 9:00 a.m. class, someone walked briskly in and whispered a few words to our professor. 

He turned to us and said, “All of you may leave, and I recommend pulling as much cash out of your bank accounts as possible.” 

T...

Church scandals are getting more attention. That much is obvious. The media reports them quickly. Documentary filmmakers spotlight fallen pastors. And while megachurches often receive the headlines, smaller congregations are not immune. The public perception is clear: something is wrong. Whether the issue is systemic across church life or isolated to specific ministries with poor practices, the challenge for local churches is the same. We need safeguards. We need them now. And we need to impleme...

Most pastors assume they own their sermons. After all, they prayed over them, studied hours for them, wrote them, preached them, and refined the writing process over many years, if not decades. A sermon is deeply personal as an expression of a pastor’s calling, theology, voice, and labor. So, it comes as a surprise to many church leaders when they learn that, in many cases, they do not legally own the sermons they preach.

The reason is simple: the law has a default setting, and that default sett...

Most church leaders know there are unchurched people in their community. But how many are there? And how receptive are they to the church? Now you can know exactly how many unchurched adults live within any specified drive time from your church location. 

The Church Answers Unchurched Receptivity Report is brand new and an excellent resource for any church. In fact, we believe every church in America should know the number of unchurched adults in their community and their receptivity levels. 

In...

Every church wants to be healthy.

Pastors and congregants want better discipleship, stronger leadership pipelines, healthier finances, more volunteers, and greater unity. Those are all worthwhile goals, but none of them sit at the source. They are downstream realities.

The source is evangelism.

If people are not coming to Christ, then every other measure of health will eventually weaken. You cannot disciple the lost into maturity. You cannot assimilate people who never arrive. You cannot build a...

We are living in a lonely nation and serving in quiet churches.

Our nation and our churches are operating at two deficits:

I will first explain the problem, then how I believe sports and recreation ministries can solve both.

The Collapse of Social Capital in Society

So, what is social capital? Social capital is the “relational glue” that enables a neighborhood, team, church, o...

Church attendance in America is being propped up by one unusually large generation: the Baby Boomers. That is not conjecture. It is a demographic reality.

Ryan Burge’s analysis of denominational age structures shows that Boomers comprise roughly 40–50% of adult membership in many Protestant denominations, even though they represent only about 20% of the U.S. adult population. In other words, Boomers are about twice as prominent in churches as they are in society at large. This imbalance explains...