Apprenticing Future Leaders

When it comes to discipleship, those of us called to do ministry in the Western Hemisphere are encumbered with what I call a “content fetish.” We have been consumed with focusing on content as if we could teach discipleship.  All we need to do is get our people into a classroom, teach them how to […]

Planting Priorities

The other day I got a Twitter question from Phil Longmire, a church planter in Richmond, TX. We were talking about church planting priorities and I was saying how important it is for planters to be out of the office, away from the computer, and out in the public’s eye. So he Tweeted me […]

Reproductive Movements

By BIll Easum

At the very time when many voices are pronouncing the end of the institutional church and the rise of the emergent church, we’re witnessing the birth of three major reproductive movements – church planting, multi-site, and raising up leaders- all of which have the potential to turn around the decline of Christianity […]

Bucks, Butts, or Disciples?

To become a part of the Next Level for Church Growth Pastors Group (a private Facebook Group), a pastor has to answer three questions. Question #2 is about Church Growth. It’s always amused me (not Ha Ha amusement) when some pastor pushes back and accuses me (and The Effective Church Group) about being one […]

Missional Small Groups

One of the key elements of most discipleship pipelines I’ve seen is what I call missional small groups. The problem is, when most people hear “small groups” they think of Bible studies, which is far from what is meant by missional small groups. So let’s look at the difference.

Most ineffective small groups are primarily […]

Is it Time to Drop the Requirement: Part Two

My post, titled “Is It Time To Drop The Requirement,” resulted in several responses, which prompted me to do a little more digging into the subject of ordination. And after extensive reading on the subject I conclude there is absolutely no mention of ordination in the New Testament. By the second part of the […]

Why Most Church Consultations Don’t Make a Long-Term Difference

We at 21st Century Strategies have been doing church consultations for over twenty-three years and we’ve had the opportunity to study why some churches thrive after a consultant has done their job and why other churches fail. Conversations with other church consultants reveal a lot of the same data. Here’s the bottom line: for […]

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 […]

Local Churches with High Capacity Church Multiplication Centers

By Linda Stanley

Recently, Leadership Network sponsored a briefing at Central Christian Church in Henderson, Nevada that included presentations from local churches that have high capacity church multiplication centers. These churches are participants in a five-year pilot project that was designed as a strategic partnership between each of them and Leadership Network. The project began […]