Dealing with the Press

Online Conversation

It is very wise to deal cautiously and carefully with the Press since most of them bring some serious bias or prejudice to the interview and will usually print only what they want to out of an interview even if it is not important to the interview. The headline is about all most […]

Does Your Church Need Resurrection or Revitalization?

All of us know that 80% of the churches in the U.S. are either in decline or on a plateau, with the congregation getting older each year.  This trend has been going on since the mid 1960’s in every denomination with nothing in site to suggest it will change.  At this pace traditional Christianity […]

Turning Members into Ministers

At my final worship service from the church I planted, pastored and grew for over twenty years, two of the staff members I had discipled since they started attending, walked on to the platform each carrying a five foot tall, three feet wide cardboard poster of my head. From behind these giant facial facades, […]

Living in a Wildcard Age

In my latest book, Doing Ministry in Hard Times, I included a chapter on Living in a Wildcard world.  I grew up in a wild card world where the probabilities far outweighed the wildcards.  You could, with a certain degree of accuracy, predict what would happen next. Today, it’s impossible because the wildcards outweigh […]

Waiting for the Next Something

On my way back from a church conference, I got on an airplane with more than its fair share of church leaders on it. This particular conference had been wildly popular and the keynote speakers frequently reminded us for the need to be faithful, effective, and efficient. The men and women in attendance seemed […]

Throw Off What Hinders Your Church

I was reading an article about Alexander the Great whose troops after many victorious battles looked like they were about to be defeated. His soldiers had taken so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted down and were losing their effectiveness in combat.

Alexander commanded that all the spoils of war […]

Multimedia

Use Multimedia, but do not let it use you.  Multimedia should be used tastefully and should follow the flow of what you are doing.  Whereas I firmly believe in the use of multimedia, I do not affirm those who just throw it in for the sake of using it even if it does not […]

The Eight Practices of a Missional Church

Some time ago I ran across a bare list of practices of missional churches by an anonymous person. The list has been sitting in my “to do” box until this morning when I decided to add my touch to them. Because it’s clear to me now that the missional approach to the meaning of ecclesia is […]

Want Popcorn with Your Worship?

Prior to March 11, my wife and I went to the cinema almost every Friday. Thankfully, we mostly have the same taste in movies, so we saw a lot of action and adventure, some mystery, an occasional sci-fi, some rom-coms, and even a few Hallmark wannabe’s. A bucket of popcorn and the largest diet […]