The Advent of Christmas
It used to be that Christmas began when Santa Claus passed the reviewing stand in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It used to be that the first strains of Christmas carols played on the Muzak on the following Friday morning. It used to be. However, for most churches, Advent will begin this year on December […]
Parabolic Preaching
I had an opportunity to visit a local mega church (about 2,500 AWA*) recently on one of their “special event” Sundays. The service was touted as an “Arts” event and they had four worship services at one campus and one more at their satellite service. The service was one of excellence, as one would expect […]
Peer Coaching 101
There’s recently been a wave of interest by judicatories in starting Peer Coaching events among their church leaders. With the inevitable failure of the “Let’s assign the new kid an experienced pastor to mentor them” program, peer coaching seems like the next best thing since frozen Snicker bars. The problem is, although Peer Coaching is […]
Getting Beyond the Mirror
The other night, I met with a new church plant’s core leadership for a planning session. Each member of the leadership core has served the church literally for years and are all excited about making a difference in their community. The new church is using a cell group model for their church plant and have […]
Developing the Leaders Under Your Nose
I suppose it’s out there somewhere, but I’ve never found it: the church that has more leaders than it knows what to do with. In fact, most churches I visit have a leadership vacuum. There appears to be more ministries and missions than there are dedicated disciples willing to lead them. How can your church […]
Congregational Trust Building
Take a good look around at your next church board meeting. Listen to the questions and the comments. Look at the faces. More importantly, though, look at the body language. What does it tell you? If you’re like many church leaders, you might conclude it’s a pretty grim scene with a lot of crossed arms, […]