About Bill Tenny-Brittian

Bill is the Managing Partner at The Effective Church Group. He began ministry as a church planter in the early 1980s and over the past 40 years he's grown churches from one side of the nation to the other. In 2002 he joined Bill Easum's consultation group and began partnering with churches and church leaders to help them reach their fullest potential. He is the author of twelve books and the editor of Net Results magazine. Reach Bill here.

Asking Advice? Lookin’ Good!

We don’t normally do this, but since the Harvard Business Review “Daily Stat” blog has been broken for over three months, instead of just posting a link, we’re reproducing a GREAT mini-post here.
Asking for Advice Makes You Seem More Competent

Most people assume that asking for advice will make others think poorly of them. But […]

How to Undermine Church Leadership in One Easy Step

The church had done all the hard work of building a solid foundation. They identified their mission, vision, and values and they developed both membership and leadership covenants. It looked like they were ready to move to the next steps of growth.

Enter the nominating committee.

There were several leadership positions that needed to be filled, but few […]

How to Start Conversations – Even If You Live in New York

When I’m coaching or consulting and make the recommendation that pastors need to spend significant time hanging out wherever it is their targets are hanging out, it tends to raise a host of questions. Where should I hang out? When? What do I need to stop doing so that I have time?

All those are […]

Don’t Be so Wordy…

I imagine that it’s no surprise that many (dare I say most) seminary trained pastors – and even business trained pastors – lean toward the verbose and the grandiloquent. In some writings, I suppose, that’s acceptable. However, when it comes to defining a church’s mission, vision, and values, our over-learnedness often gets in the way.

In fact, I […]

When It’s Time to Say “We’re Gonna Miss You”

A Personal Note to ALL Church Leaders
Church leaders need to remember that they have a different mandate than the average church member. At large church members are charged with the care of one another (other Christians and fellow church members in particular, among other responsibilities). Church leaders, however, are charged with the care of […]

Are Your Leaders Interested or Committed?

I was reading some business blogs the other day and came across one in Entrepreneur magazine. The president of Fusion Logistics, Joe Judson, was waxing eloquent on one of the measures of success, interest versus commitment, and it got my mind spinning about some church leaders I’ve worked with.

Many church leaders are interested in […]

The Right and Wrong Ways to Network

He finally took our advice and started spending time at the local coffee shop at the big box book store. Every Tuesday and every Thursday he was there from 9 to noon without fail, but after eight weeks he was pretty discouraged. He hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with anyone, hadn’t exchanged contact information […]

Five Things You’re Doing That Won’t Grow Your Church

The church pastor was flummoxed. He had no idea why his church wasn’t growing. He was doing lots of stuff right, but he just couldn’t get any traction. So he called me. After a lengthy conversation, I helped him identify five things he was spending a lot of his time on that weren’t growing […]

Pocket Numbers

Back in the days when I was involved in Toastmasters, I used to carry a “pocket speech” with me to every meeting. A pocket speech was a pre-prepared three- to five-minute speech that I could present just in case the scheduled speaker didn’t show up. Every member of our club was encouraged to have […]