Book Review: God Dreams
There’s a saying, no one seems to know who said it first, that “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” Â I try to stay out of those rooms whenever possible. So it wasn’t surprising to me when I found myself in the same room as Will Mancini and Warren […]
Who’s Your Nominating Chair?
I was reading Luke 6 this morning and was struck by verse 12: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. This passage immediately precedes the calling of the twelve apostles and it is one of only two times the Gospels mention Jesus going […]
Little Fails Can Be Epic
I hear a lot about “epic fails” these days. Typically, that means something has gone very wrong – and ended up on YouTube or Facebook. The truck was too tall for the underpass and it took out the bridge. The boat sank because it took on sixteen too many passengers. The kid broke his arm […]
A Pastor’s Wish List
Ministry in today’s culture is more difficult than perhaps at any other time in history. Sure, we’re in no danger of being fed to the lions, but today’s culture is more resistant to religion … any religion … than ever before. After speaking with pastors and staff, I heard some consistent wishes. 1. I wish […]
Don’t Waste Your First Six Months
There are two ways to approach a new calling to a declining church. (1) Start slowly, build relationships, get the lay of the land, and then slowly effect changes. Ready, Aim, Fire. Or (2) Assess quickly, make changes, and then make adjustments. Ready, Fire, Aim. The first method is the most common approach in ministry. […]
Advertising the Church
We live in a marketing-saturated world. The number of ads you see every single day is up in the thousands now (in the 1970s you would have seen about 500 a day … today it’s at about 5000 a day – CBS News). With that in mind, it’s no wonder the church is finding it […]