The Platinum Rule of Hospitality

Make Your Christmas Eve Count

The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have done unto you,” has been the hallmark of the church for nearly two millennia. However, the rule has lately been misapplied to mean, “We’ll do unto others as we would have done unto us… so all those ‘others’ will have to like what we like.” […]

Why Church as Business So Often Fails

What Great Leaders Measure

Today’s spiritual seekers rarely turn to Christianity or to the church to find the answers they seek because of their past experiences or because of the church’s – or the faith’s – reputation. Too often, spiritual seekers have turned in desperation to the church only to discover that it is embroiled in “business as usual,” […]

Three Lessons for Church Leaders from Daymond John

Ineffective Church Mission Statements

For some reason, I made it to the airport without my requisite yellow pad of paper. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll just read and write on my iPad.” Oops … not until I get to 10,000 feet. So on the ascent I leafed through the United Airlines Hemispheres magazine and an interview with Daymond John […]

There are Better Places for Kids than “Big Church”

Staff to Supplement Your Weaknesses

According to the American Religious Identification Survey (from Trinity College, Hartford, CT) the fastest growing religious affiliation growing in North America is the unaffiliated. Called “the church of the nones” by scholars, these are people who were once affiliated with the Christian faith, but have “opted out” of faith. Although many, perhaps even a majority, […]

The 80% Rule: There’s More to It Than Parking

Transformational Fallout

The church was soooo proud. Their choir loft was shoulder-to-shoulder with sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones, and basses. So they didn’t see the “divide into two choirs” recommendation coming. They sounded so good and full, and wasn’t that the purpose of the choir? But the choir was so overgrown that it could no longer achieve its […]