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The Doer Dilemma

It’s not politically correct these days, but the old adage, “Too many chiefs and not enough indians” points to a larger problem in the church today.

Yes, there’s a leadership vacuum in most churches today, but not for the reasons most people think. It’s not that there aren’t potential leaders there in the church, there […]

Stop Inviting People to Church… and Grow Your Church Anyway

Recently, I was working with a church that desperately wants to grow… well, the pastor wants it to grow. He asked his core leaders about their inviting experiences and they all said shades of the same thing: “I’ve invited all my friends to church and they’re not interested.”

Well, duh!!

Unless you happen to be inviting […]

On Firing Staff

The more I work with lead pastors the more I realize how hard it is for them to fire a staff person who isn’t performing, isn’t a team player, or is just downright disruptive. Too many pastors put up with so much crap from one or two on their staff that they shoot themselves […]

How to Create a Budget for Your Church: 4 Best Practices

As a church leader, you know how important it is for your church to effectively steward its resources. After all, you can only serve the community and engage your congregation if you have the necessary funding for your mission-driven activities!

Accounting best practices provide a framework for managing your church’s finances, and one critical element […]

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Many of you know that for the past two decades I have been obsessed with offshore billfishing. It’s impossible to give justice to a description of the feeling one gets when a 400-pound blue marlin is coming toward your bait. You see the fin, then the bill, then the crash as the Blue attacks […]

Stewardship is a Way of Life

We received a note today on our advanced leadership forum that asked what place to begin talking with churches about stewardship.  My response was this: stewardship of money comes from the heart.  That’s where you begin. 

Then a list of things I have believed for a long time surfaced in my pea brain.  I thought I would […]

The 20 Percent Who Could

The stats aren’t pretty. In fact, they’re pretty deplorable. But they’re nonetheless accurate. Eighty percent of all Pastoral Size to Program Size church transformations fail – 80 percent. A Pastoral Sized church is one in which the pastor is essentially the end-all, be-all of the congregational expectations. They attend virtually every function and event. […]

Going … Where?

Jesus said to go make disciples. It’s the main thing for Jesus. Is it themain thing for you and your church?

There are so many people who are not connected to Jesus and hischurch in our country at this time. People are needlessly flounderingwithout the peace, joy, and love which can only be realized throughfaith […]

Start a New Message Series on Easter

For most churches, Easter is the best-attended Sunday of the year and many of those in attendance will be those who only attend on Christmas and Easter. Each year at this time I would ask myself what kind of series should I begin on Easter Sunday that would hopefully make everyone present make spiritual […]