I suggest churches train their next generation of pastors and leaders right now (written in 2020, but still applies today). In that case, the local pastor would mentor the students while they completed some of the below courses. Here are some high-quality resources to assist, of course, using your judgment on the material and offering institution.

Free resources: 

Blue Letter Bible: Take 22 courses in central Christian belief and practice areas. Each class is designed to be used for either self-study, home Bible study, or the classroom. Their goal is to make BLBi the most comprehensive course of study possible. https://study.bible/courseList , Some courses can even count for credit at Lancaster Bible College. Nice!

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) is an in-depth, interdenominational Bible study that helps people know God and equips them to serve the Church throughout the world effectively. https://www.bsfinternational.org/

Cedarville University: Their goal is that all class lectures/recordings in the Bible minor are free. They have the Old Testament course complete. https://www.cedarville.edu/news/2019/bible-minor-class-videos-available-for-free-online

Very affordable resources:

Urban Ministries’ Digital Precepts materials. The digital subscription is $7/month per person and is found at preceptsdigital.com. The digital material includes a weekly self-paced Bible study, teaching videos, quizzes, and daily Bible readings. It also includes printable and downloadable content for teachers so that a whole Bible study group could be organized with a single subscription. If you’re not leading a class, then skip the teaching aids. 

Urban Ministries’ Precepts for Living materials. These are affordable workbook-based materials covering the same content as the Digital Precepts material. They can be found on this page https://store.urbanministries.com/collections/precepts-for-living

Selection of small Bible colleges:

Small Bible colleges may not be regionally accredited (you can’t transfer the credits earned to other colleges), but credits aren’t necessary if your career/ministry field (local church or denomination) accepts degrees from the schools. Each is different in its materials, strengths, and costs. 

​https://www.summitbiblecollege.com/ English and Spanish Bible classes. Pay by degree, not by course. Ex: Associates of Biblical Studies Tuition = $8,400 in 2020
https://globaluniversity.edu/ English and Spanish Bible classes. $90 – $135 per course. Ex: Associate of Arts in Church Ministries = $5,400 to $8,100 plus books and fees (I didn’t find a total cost, I recommend requesting a list of fees and how often they apply the fees.)
https://www.ibaptistcollege.org/ English Bible classes. $150-$300 per course. Ex: Associates Of Pastoral Ministry = $9,600. I suggest discussing the classes with your pastor. It appears there’s a large discount if your pastor establishes a remote Bible Institute location/website for your church. 

Last thought: if the courses you can afford are not from your church denomination but otherwise close in beliefs, then why not take the course? Compare the statement of beliefs of both denominations and make a decision then. The differences might not even come up the course.

God Speed future pastors and church leaders!

Ourchurch.com Blogging (abbreviation of weblog -> blog, then turned into a verb ->blogging) helps you connect and improves search rankings. However, it’s not easy to create new material every week. Ourchurch.com presents a list of helpful articles on church blogging.

ODPS Ohio Emergency Management Agency Higher Education: Active Aggressor Tabletop Exercise (TTX) Toolkit. From Ohio.gov: Emergency preparedness exercises can be a daunting and costly undertaking. This toolkit was developed to provide a free product for houses of worship to better prepare staff, worshipers, first responders, and other partners to plan for and respond to such incidents.

Thom S. Rainer’s I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference and I Will: Nine Traits of the Outwardly Focused Christian. These are small pocket-size books for members to read. They are also good for a class to read together. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. Description above in the previous section. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Becoming a Welcoming Church, is a game plan for church members to truly be inviting towards guests. This is written for members to read on their own or in a class. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. This short book is heavy hitting. Every church in America needs to read it and re-read it every year. The pastors need to read it. The church members need to read it. Churches succeed in the Great Commission when following the Biblical paths in this book. If you can’t find a copy, then send me a message and I’ll loan you my copy.  Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Steveparr.net This is a powerful and practical resource for pastors and leaders of all levels. From the site: In thirty-five plus years of ministry, Dr. Steve Parr has assisted thousands of churches in strengthening their ministries by motivating and training leaders through seminars, conferences, preaching, and personal consultations.

Centerforbaptistrenewal.com This is a site that explores church tradition (mainly Baptist, but all will benefit as well) and examines it under the light of Scripture. I recommend it to all churches. I suggest starting with the oldest blog post first, then work in chronological order.

The ourchurch.com/blog/​ is well written and covers many topics church leadership needs to consider for website design and upkeep. 

As a church visitor, I encounter a range of welcomes. Some provide so much attention that many people would feel uncomfortable and not go back. Others provide so little attention I wonder if I was even noticed. My hunch is most welcoming committees are naturally made up of outgoing people, who use tactics geared towards other outgoing people.

Here are some tactics with the view of an outgoing person; Michael,  and a reversed person; Toby.

• Visitor parking: Michael says, “How nice and thoughtful, they have a space for me.” Toby thinks, “I’m not going to call out attention to myself, I’m not parking there.”
• Welcome greeting at door: Michael enjoys the small talk and greetings. Toby shakes hands and only says hello, then finds a seat quickly in the back.
• Visitor gift: Michael thinks, “How thoughtful and caring.” Toby thinks, “Now I have to carry around a sign that I’m a visitor.”
• Visitor card information request: Toby thinks, “This is wonderful. I can fill everything out and not talk to anyone unless I want to.” Michael thinks, “This is impersonal and not a good use of my time.”
• Stand up and introduce yourself: Michael thinks, “Now this is personal attention. I can announce myself to everyone!” Toby thinks, “Can I fake fainting to get out of this?”
• Walk around and greet everyone: Michael walks around the whole room and makes sure to greet everyone. Toby sits or stands in place, hold his arms close together, greets those that come to them only, and wishes the time would end as fast as possible.

Follow-UpAs a church visitor, I do not receive many follow-ups, even though follow-up is crucial to maintaining a connection with the visitor. They may have visited several churches over a few weeks and the follow-up will remind them about your specific church. It can also be used to highlight upcoming events, like a concert or a children’s event. However, it should be not overbearing or too frequent. I feel a good follow-up is more than once, but less than four times. The first one should be within a week and the others spread out over a couple of months.

Here are some tactics continued with the view of an outgoing person, Michael,  and a reversed person, Toby.

• Handwritten Thank You note from the pastor: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Full page typed letter: Michael & Toby think, “It’s slightly less personal, but still thoughtful.”
• Holiday card or postcard: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Phone call: Michael thinks, “How wonderful to talk to them again and be able to ask some questions I had.” Toby thinks, “I’m not going to answer it because they will ask me a ton of questions.”
• Email: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Surprise House Visit:  Michael welcomes them, but feels it is slightly pushy. Toby starts to have a panic attack because he’s not prepared for guests.

In short, make them feel welcome and follow-up, but not in overbearing ways.

Here’s a 30 day list to take action on your church’s visibility to the community. It’s needed, trust me. I created after attempting to visit about 50 churches in my area. Nearly all of them had some outdated information making it hard to visit. So, the question is “Can the lost (unchurched, perhaps dechurched) find you?”

Embrace Colossians 3:23 and reach people to fulfill Matthew 28:18–20!

30 Day Challenge Worksheet
Can the lost find you?

After praying over this effort, here are the daily challenges:
Day 1. Assign a digital team or point person to manage the church’s online presence.
Who:________________________________________________
Day 2. Create a free email address (e.g., Gmail) specifically for the church to use for all
online profiles.
Email:_______________________________________________
Day 3. Search for your church on Google Maps to see if it already exists.
Day 4. Add or update your church’s Google Maps profile with address, phone, service
times, and a photo, being logged into Google Maps using the central email.
Day 5. Claim your church’s Google Maps profile using the central email.
Day 6. Set up email notifications for messages on your Google Maps Business profile to
the central email.
Day 7. Research one social media website relevant to your community (e.g., Facebook,
Yelp, Nextdoor). Ask and look around to find what people use.
Site selected:_________________________________________
Day 8. Create a profile for your church on that social media website using the central
email, and add basic info (address, phone, service times) and a photo.
Day 9. Set up email notifications for messages on this profile to the central email, if
possible.
Day 10. Research another social media website website and create a profile with basic
info and a photo using the central email.
Site selected:_________________________________________
Day 11. Set up email notifications for messages on this second profile to the central
email, if possible.
Day 12. Claim any unofficial profiles of your church on social media platforms using the
central email.
Day 13. Establish a routine for the digital team to check the central email daily for all
profile messages and respond promptly.
Routine:_____________________________________________
Day 14. Check your church’s physical sign for accuracy and update if necessary.
Day 15. Collect info for your church website: address, phone number, service times,
directions, doctrine, values, plan of salvation.
Day 16. Choose a free website builder like Weebly or Wix and create a practice site to
learn the tool – do not publish the practice site.
Chosen builder:______________________________________
Day 17. Create your church’s actual website using the collected info on the free builder.
At this point, only focus on homepage 1-2 other pages. I suggest the address, phone number,
service times & directions are on the homepage. The 1-2 other pages can have doctrine,
values & plan of salvation.
Day 18. Test the website with Google’s mobile-friendly tool (or just ask people to use
their own phones) to ensure it works on phones.
Day 19. Purchase a custom URL and redirect it to your free website for a professional
look. I use Namescheap.com, they are affordable.
Purchased from:_____________________________________
Custom URL:________________________________________
Day 20. Ask someone else to review your website for errors or broken links.
Day 21. Add a contact form to your website so visitors can reach out easily, linked to the
central email.
Day 22. Create a news blog page on your website and post about an upcoming event.
Day 23. Create a sermon blog page on your website for sharing audio sermons, if the
free website builder allows.
Day 24. Record and upload at least one sermon to the sermon blog, depending on day
23.
Day 25. Update all your online profiles (the social media sites selected day 7 and day 10,
and the business profile claimed in day 5) to include your website URL from day 19.
Day 26. Set a weekly schedule to update the website with fresh content (news, sermons,
or events).
Day 27. Create an event-specific page on your website for an upcoming event with
details and photos, perhaps a page for Vacation Bible School.
Day 28. Add more photos to your Google Maps profile to showcase your church.
Day 29. Encourage church members to leave reviews on your Google Maps profile.
Day 30. Review your progress over the past 30 days and plan for ongoing maintenance
of your digital presence.

Highly recommend. The 1st half is a lot about surveys and slight differences in one group over the other, which is helpful to a point. However, the actionable reading is in the last half of the books.

1. Don’t invite people to church, invite them into your life, your table, your home, and your church.
2. Church is not an event, it’s a family.
3. Clubs can be golf, social, etc. Healthy churches are more than activities. Don’t neglect core Christian doctrine to being people back.
4. Many dechurched, apart from church trauma, still hold core beliefs, just want extra self time.
5. While 4 seems good, other underlying issues, keep the dechurched away from church. Too many to list here.
6. New church plants, something fresh and exciting vs an established church, add more new converts. Mix of good and bad news for established church. If established church is not growing in last breath donate their church to a new growing church plant. A win for the kingdom.
7. We need to live as true believers, shun hypocrisy. Non authentic members drove away dechurched. Col. 4:5-6.
8. Listen. Really listen, take people seriously. The are people not projects, not goal numbers to hit or seats to fill. 9. Large cultural gaps to bridge. Don’t abandon core Christians values, but do try to understand the views held by those you talk to, back to #8.
9. We live in attention economy, AI, TV, phones, socials, ads, etc. getting people’s attention. Doom scrolling. People are burned out attention wise. Help people get better information diets, to promote health minds that aren’t burned out.
10. Your church must be healthy. Vigorously pursue Bible study, learning, seek authentic Jesus, not prosperity Jesus, not American Jesus, etc.
11. Last two chapters, hard to sum up. Many of the points above, but new idea of living as exiles.

Really good. Recommend the book.