2018
Effective communication is a passion of mine. But when we speak in front of people on a regular basis it’s easy to lose sight of why we’re doing it.
How many pastors have found themselves deep in the weeds in sermon prep, trying to find just the right illustration, ...
If you were in seminary or in active pastoral ministry in the 1990s and 2000s you probably remember what the big trend in pastoral training was.
Felt needs.
Back then it seemed like every church leadership book, article and conference was telling pastors that the way to reach ...
As pastors, we have a solemn obligation to equip church members to do ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Instead, too many pastors burn out because the pastor and the church members expect the pastor to do most or all of the ministry for them.
Making the transition from the doer of ...
The mission comes first.
Always.
Ahead of my ideas, my preferences and my well-worn, dearly-loved terminology.
Because of that, whenever an extra-biblical idea or turn of phrase is anything but clear in the way it advances the message, we need to find and use a better manner of ...
I don’t go to church to worship Jesus.
Hear me out. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Anyone can worship Jesus anywhere, at any time.
We don’t need a special building, a special day or a special time to do it. We don’t come into the presence of God when we enter ...
Great lives are made up of mundane tasks.
- Getting out of bed every morning
- Making sure the kids are clothed and fed
- Going to work
- Thanking a friend
- Being honest
- Helping a neighbor
- Showing up at church
We’re always told to pursue excellence. To accomplish great things. To be world-changers. ...
There are so many great tools available to churches today.
From social media, to audio and video tools, to cool giveaways for first-time guests.
But none of that matters until you’re doing the essentials well.
Be Good, Not Fancy
This week I went to a restaurant with a large ...
Thank you, New York.
You taught me how to be a better Christian, pastor and peacemaker this week.
For the past five days, my wife, my sisters, their husbands and I walked all over New York City with my parents as we celebrated their 60th anniversary.
New York is filled with some ...
Another day, another Facebook scam.
But this one isn’t Facebook’s fault.
Last weekend you may have received a message telling you your Facebook account was duplicated, but you can fix it by copying the warning message and forwarding it to your friends.
Hopefully, you ...
In the last 40 years, church growth has moved from an indefinable mystery to a quantifiable science.
There are innumerable books, conferences, classes, podcasts, magazines and blogs dedicated to the study of church growth. What causes it? What hinders it? What can we do to make ...
The world is changing. In good ways and bad.
If you live in America’s Bible Belt (predominantly the Midwest and South) you are probably feeling the impact of these changes to a greater degree than those of us who live outside it. And those feelings are likely to grow for ...
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
That’s one of those truisms that’s actually true – in church and in life.
One of the hallmarks of healthy churches is that they work hard at making a good first impression. Helping guests make the leap from ...
The smaller the group, the more likely there will be a higher percentage of members engaged in the goals of the team.
This is true for groups of all types, including churches.
In the last few years I’ve come to appreciate this principle in some very concrete ways. And it’s ...
So, you pastor a small, struggling church.
You’re trying to help it become less small and less struggling, but all the “can’t miss” answers from the latest church growth conferences never seem to work for you.
You don’t have a big worship team singing ...
No church is perfect.
Some churches make mistakes but keep growing and moving ahead at lightning speed, while other churches make similar mistakes, but can’t seem to make even the smallest forward progress.
Every pastor of every plateaued church experiences this. And every ...
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