The Ability to Focus

One of the things I’ve had to do over and over when coaching pastors is remind them to focus on the major issues we’ve talked about instead of getting distracted time and time again. Pastors appear to be extremely vulnerable to distractions due to their high desire to please people. Often pastors have a […]

Time Management for Church Leaders

One of top questions we’ve heard during the Only Four Things Grow Churches tour has to do with the allocation of the pastor’s time. When we suggest that a pastor leading a church of under 450 needs to spend between 70 – 80 percent of their time networking with the unchurched, the grumbling becomes […]

Decentralization

The world I grew up in taught there is one way to do everything and one size fits all. That’s the heart of the industrial world of modernity. However, just the opposite is true today. You know that if you own most any kind of software or cell phone. Almost everything today is undergoing decentralization. […]

Pulling the Trigger – Part Two

Yesterday we looked at why it is so hard for pastors to pull the trigger and institute something new. Today we are going to look at what pastors need to do in order to pull the trigger.

Leaders Must Manage Themselves
Pastors or executive pastors have to be flexible on non-essentials and stubborn on the essentials. […]

Pulling the Trigger

Two Axioms for Pulling the Trigger
Why is it so hard for pastors to pull the trigger and institute something new? Why do so many resist doing what they know needs done? Let me take a stab at responding to these questions.  I think there are two prime reasons.

1. Distractions dilute desire.

Don’t kid yourself. Distractions […]

The Average Pastor’s Achilles Heel

I’ve coached and consulted with hundreds of pastors over the years and I’ve noticed a common thread in the ministry of those pastors who do not do well. The sad thing about this common thread is that it could be eliminated with one simple word. But before I tell you what that one word […]

Make Meetings Matter

One of the biggest complaints we hear from committee chairs is that their committee members don’t come to the scheduled meetings. When we hear that, we almost always know that the primary issue isn’t about having a bunch of members who are slackers without integrity. We tell the committee chair, “The reason your members […]

Focus Is the Name of the Game

One of the major problems pastors have is either the inability or lack of desire to focus on what’s important.

Case in point. Yesterday, a pastor of a 150-member church told me he was exhausted from working so many hours a week. My response: Pastoring a church of 150 members isn’t a full-time job, and […]

Time to Daydream

I daydream a lot. Some might even say I fantasize. It’s my own little world. I dream about winning the biggest billfish tournament in the world. I dream about seeing my wife again in this world. I dream about making a difference in the world. I dream about what I could do with ten […]