Category: Articles

Management Skills

They didn’t teach me management skills in seminary.  I wish they had, because as the leader of a church, I needed them badly and it’s a shame I had to learn them on my own.  So I thought I would pass on some pointers. Pointer One:  If you can’t measure it, it will not succeed.  […]

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 […]