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. […]

Communication Hub

For the week of November 07, 2005

Communication “Hub”

By: Tom Bandy

Traditional church buildings were designed for curriculums rather than conversations. In other words, ecclesiastical architects assumed worshippers would go immediately to Sunday school rooms, or return for midweek Bible study sessions, or gather routinely in community centers. Christians did not really need to converse over […]

Cordeiro, The Irresistible Church

What caused you to write The Irresistible Church? What was the need?

People in America have been polled as being spiritual but not religious. This tells me that they are interested in God but not necessarily the church. The church was always designed to be the resplendence of God, a preview of heaven. However, the church is […]

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 […]

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 […]

Barriers to Effective Leadership Teams Part 1

For the week of March 07, 2005

Barriers to Effective Leadership Teams: Part 1: The Absence of Shared DNA

By: John Laster

There are three common, interrelated barriers to more effective leadership teams: the absence of a shared DNA, the presence of fear, and a lack of trust within the team itself.

The concept of “shared DNA” contains […]

Thoughts on Innovation

The following is a personal story that sheds light on innovation.

Way back in 1982 (I know, ancient history) a member of my church staff decided to bring a dozen Apple 2e’s into the Sunday School and start writing curriculum for Bible studies. I was impressed by how quickly the kids took to the new […]

Radical Disciple Making: Creating Processes

“What I really need is more nuts and bolts on how to do disciple making. Obviously, what we’re doing isn’t working.” The pastor was exasperated because he had a church full of members instead of a church full of disciples. 

At the Radical Disciple Making Conference, we speak about the need to create “processes” in […]

Church Planters’ Heaven

One of the most valued pieces of church planting is often lost in the hustle and bustle of setting up and taking down, but when its discovered it’s like heaven on earth. I’m talking about visibility.  Nothing takes the place of visibility for a church planter’s success. A planter lives and dies on visibility.

Visibility […]