Your church's health may hinge on how well you understand the women in your pews.

New research from Barna Group, conducted in partnership with The Mom Co, reveals what's driving Christian mothers to church and what's keeping them engaged once they arrive. The findings come alongside data showing a widening gender attendance gap between men and women, which makes this research a window into one of the most consequential dynamics shaping your congregation's future.

By a significant margin, the top two drivers of engagement for moms are worship and community. Moms come to encounter God and to belong to something real. They want worship that creates space for spiritual renewal and relationships that hold them when life gets hard. Small group ministries scored highest for satisfaction. Notably, only about one in four moms reports high satisfaction with preaching and teaching, indicating that information alone isn't what they're most hungry for.

What this means for your church: Moms are telling you something important. A thriving church isn't built on better programs or more polished sermons alone. It's built on spaces where people genuinely encounter God and authentically know each other. When moms feel that, they stay, and they bring their families with them. Three steps to act on this week:

Church Planting Is Back—And It's Better This Time | The Gospel Coalition

After a sharp decline following the chaotic first wave of the 2000s and 2010s, church planting is surging again. Acts 29's planting pipeline more than tripled in two years. The PCA launched 54 new works in 2025, its highest number in two decades. Today's planters are older, better assessed, team-based, and far better supported. Survival rates have climbed accordingly, with nearly 90% of SBC plants now lasting beyond four years.

For established church leaders, this trend is directly relevant: new churches are consistently the most effective at reaching unchurched people, younger generations, and more ethnically diverse communities. The question is whether your church is part of what's coming next.

This week: Identify one young leader in your congregation with pastoral potential and begin a conversation about their calling. You don't have to plant a church to build the pipeline.

Staff Tension Usually Isn't a People Problem | Lifeway Research

Bryan Rose at Auxano makes a clarifying diagnosis: most church staff struggles aren't about effort or personality; they're about structural ambiguity. When roles overlap, expectations drift, and vision isn't shared, even capable teams stall. Lifeway Research backs this up, finding that nearly three in four pastors report feeling overwhelmed, and that unclear expectations are a leading factor in ministry departure. Rose offers five questions every leadership team should work through together, starting with the most foundational: What are we actually trying to accomplish? Answering that question well changes everything downstream: evaluations, accountability, collaboration, and culture.

This week: Bring your staff or key volunteer leaders through one question: "Does everyone on our team know what success looks like, not just for their role, but for the whole church?" The conversation that follows will tell you where to focus.

What would you like to see more of? Hit reply and let us know.

You're receiving this because you care about growing healthy churches. Forward this to a fellow pastor who could use some encouragement.