One of the Best Books of the Last Five Years
A book every pastor with a staff, or one who is going to have a staff, should read is Fairness Is Overrated, by Tim Stevens. Over the past two years I’ve waded through dozens of books, and only a handful have pushed my buttons as much as this one. This book is cool to the point […]
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 […]
Does Your Church’s Culture Honor God?
I was the pastor of a good church but, honestly, it didn’t honor God like it should when it came to new people. We were very friendly to each other, however, guests didn’t seem to find us hospitable. Sadly, the vast majority of churches are like that. What about yours? What is the friendliness status […]
Do You Have the Courage to Lead?
As a pastor, I wasn’t taught or mentored in how to be a leader. So I have had to dig deep inside to prayerfully find and develop an inner leader or suffer the consequences. Perhaps you have been on that same journey. You would understandably assume that being a pastor is about being pastoral. But […]
Does Your Hospitality Have Integrity?
The threat with church hospitality at present is that it can become just another program to get people to church. Hospitality had better be grounded in a true sense of loving God’s people. People often refrain from church these days because of what they determine to be hypocrisy. You could say that that means there […]