Everyone in your church measures success somehow- and that's not a bad thing. When someone measures success, it means they're looking to see if what they're doing is working. The problem comes when all those people are measuring success in different ways. When that happens, you run into a problem with expectations and opinions about what should happen next.

Most Elders have self-identified as someone who believes that giving their time and talents to their local church something they're called to do. Most elders bring various skills and knowledge from their workplaces to create a well-rounded team. And most elders enjoy seeing people get to know Jesus and watching their church grow.

I explained, as concisely as I could, that I'm a youth pastor, and that I work with a group of churches trying to help reach people in his generation. His follow up question caught me a little off guard - “I think there is a special school somewhere that you can learn how to be a youth pastor. Did you go there?" As a Christian you might laugh at this question thinking “Really? Who doesn’t know what a Bible College or Seminary is?”

The topic of church hospitality is coming up more often as I speak with church leaders, sessions, and elder boards. As congregations continue to shrink, and more churches close each year, leaders are looking for ways to combat this trend. How can we bring new people in? How can we ensure they want to come back? How do we make sure our back door isn’t as wide open as our front door?