I was having a conversation with a church’s staff members the other day and mentioned that the words that church leaders should dread are, “That won’t happen again, will it?” As in, if that happens again – or perhaps just a couple more times – then they will be replaced by someone who will […]
I opened a sermon recently with the following:
“Good morning, Church!”
That sounds pretty good, until you dwell on what a greeting like that might mean to some folks. Was I speaking to the building? Was I addressing the decision-makers? Making a pronouncement the world as a church spokesman? (There’s a lot of that going around […]
Effective Church Leaders are more than skilled volunteers. First and foremost, they should be expected to exhibit conspicuous spiritual practices. The “go to your prayer closet” and “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” has been used as an excuse for shallow discipleship for too long (and both of those […]
It was a train wreck in the making. The senior pastor had been called when the church was averaging about 400 in worship and he led a growth initiative that took the church to nearly 1000. But between the 400 and the 1000 came a revelation to the church’s leadership, including the board. The senior […]
“But that’s not fair!”
These are words I expect to hear from my young grandchildren … not words I expect to hear from adults, let alone mature Christians. But I hear them nonetheless.
“We can’t appoint Frank to an elder’s position … he doesn’t participate in any adult faith formation groups.”
“But that’s not fair …”
“We have […]
I get the Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day during the week and had to share this one.
(BTW, I highly recommend HBR for pastors … it’s worth the expense.)
This tip was particularly insightful because in our our experience, pastors regularly suffer from this malady (and so do most church leaders, truth-be-told).
What to […]
How many church leaders does it take to change a lightbulb?
I’m not sure, but in many churches it takes 50 percent or more of the sitting board members to make virtually every decision. And there’s a church growth correlation that shows the more leaders involved in management decisions, the smaller the church’s potential.
Case in point: […]
Let me start out by being totally clear. A Bible study in and of itself is not a life transforming activity. The church is filled with spiritually immature members who are the products of many years of “Bible studies,” Sunday school classes, and discussion groups. Most Bible studies are data dumps of information that fills […]
“What I really need is more nuts and bolts on how to do disciple making. Obviously, what we’re doing isn’t working.” The pastor was exasperated because he had a church full of members instead of a church full of disciples.
At the Radical Disciple Making Conference, we speak about the need to create “processes” in […]
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