by Nick Blevins | Mar 30, 2026 | Strategy
Most churches approach prayer walls backward. They pick a design first, build it beautifully, then hope people use it. But here's what actually happens: the design sits pretty. Engagement fades. The prayer wall becomes church furniture. A prayer wall works when it's...
by Nick Blevins | Sep 9, 2020 | Strategy
When it comes to church retention, first we have to define what we mean upfront. For this post's purpose, we're talking about retention in terms of a new church attender continuing to come back and get involved over the next few months. They might continue to attend...
by Nick Blevins | Jul 22, 2020 | Strategy
COVID-19 prompted most churches to move to a 100% digital strategy in a short time. It was new and different, but churches adjusted. After moving online quickly, most churches saw higher numbers of online engagement, with about half of churches saying they grew....
by Nick Blevins | Nov 21, 2016 | Strategy, Popular
In 2016, I created a comprehensive survey about Children's & Youth Ministry Staff & Volunteer Ratios. It was taken by over 1,600 churches and provided a great benchmark for how many staff and how many volunteers different children's and youth ministries have....
by Nick Blevins | May 18, 2016 | Leadership, Strategy
Have you ever been confused by the terms mission, vision, strategy, and values? Join the club. In the first post in this series, I introduced this topic and wrote about Mission. In the second post, I wrote about Vision and the role it plays. In the third post, I wrote...
by Nick Blevins | May 16, 2016 | Strategy
Have you ever been confused by the terms mission, vision, strategy, and values? Join the club. In the first post in this series, I introduced this topic and wrote about Mission. In the second post, I wrote about Vision and the role it plays. In this post, we'll talk...
by Nick Blevins | May 11, 2016 | Leadership, Strategy
Have you ever been confused by the terms mission, vision, strategy, and values? Join the club. In the first post in this series, I introduced this topic and wrote about Mission. In this post, we'll talk about Vision. Many leaders are understandably confused between...
by Nick Blevins | May 9, 2016 | Leadership, Strategy
Have you ever been confused by the terms mission, vision, strategy, and values? Join the club. I'm certainly no expert on the subject. But, in this series of posts, I'll share my thoughts on each one along with their distinctions and how they can be used in our family...
by Nick Blevins | Feb 1, 2016 | Family Ministry, Popular, Strategy
Almost anyone who works in children's ministry or student ministry understands what it is like to be underpaid and overworked. That comes with ministry in general, but for various reasons churches often pay children and student staff even less than other roles in the...
by Nick Blevins | Jan 13, 2016 | Family Ministry, Strategy
Most churches can't answer a simple question: “Is our family ministry healthy?” Not because they don't care. But because they don't measure anything—or they measure the wrong things. They track attendance, celebrate big events, and call it success....
by Nick Blevins | Dec 7, 2015 | Family Ministry, Strategy
When our church was started as a church plant almost 15 years ago we believed the foundation of our children and student ministries needed to be a partnering with parents. We really believed, and still believe, that parents are the primary spiritual leaders for their...
by Nick Blevins | Oct 29, 2015 | Family Ministry, Strategy
Most of you who read this blog lead in ministry in some capacity. If you're like me, you feel the constant pressure of preparing for Sunday along with the desire to move the ministry forward and do the best job you can leading people to Jesus. You may feel like things...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 31, 2015 | Leadership, Strategy
A couple of weeks ago, I shared two posts about what I had learned from time spent with two churches (Connexus | Browncroft). My time spent with both of them was during the week with their staff, not on a Sunday experiencing their services. Last month I visited...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 24, 2015 | Strategy
Our church moved into a new building a while back, and one of the things I had to plan for was the children's ministry space and how much we would need. In this post, I'll share how I approached it in terms of planning for space, planning the budget, and implementing...
by Nick Blevins | Jul 23, 2012 | Leadership, Popular, Strategy
What is Family Ministry? Family Ministry is a newer phrase used in the church world to represent how a local church serves families. In the local church (in America at least), that has taken on a variety of looks over the years, but can mostly be broken up into 2...
