2018
There are two types of churches.
Those on offense and those on defense.
In recent years, I’ve been in hundreds of rooms with thousands of pastors from both types of churches.
Churches on offense are not different from churches on defense in any external way.
They and their ...
Are there any two words more likely to send an audience running for the exits than “PowerPoint presentation?”
That’s why, even though I use PowerPoint almost every time I speak, I don’t do PowerPoint presentations.
I teach. I preach. I talk. I illustrate. ...
A lot of churches get a nice year-end bump in their finances.
During the Christmas season even casual attenders come to church more often, churches hold annual events like Christmas Bazaars that bring in funds, and the week of Christmas often attracts huge crowds – and ...
There’s nothing anyone can do to guarantee that any particular congregation will grow numerically.
No, I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic.
There are simply no absolutes in church growth. At least not for the numerical increase of an individual congregation. ...
You know those commercials where clients or patients had amazing results, only to hear a hurried voice at the end telling you “individual results may vary”?
It might be helpful if church growth books, blogs, podcasts and conferences had that, too.
The reason those ...
Why does the church exist?
It’s not to get people together for meetings. Or to keep our theology pure. Or to defend our traditions. Or to look cool and appealing to the unchurched.
But it’s easy to fall into one or more of those traps if we’re not constantly ...
Really?
Is this still a thing? People aren’t still arguing about what we wear to church, are they?
Yes. Despite the much more relaxed approach most people have, the debate about appropriate church attire still rages in some circles. So I’m going to weigh in on it.
Where ...
Oh, the funnel.
That simple, but immensely valuable piece of human engineering.
With it, you can take massive amounts of material, data or (using the visual funnel we call a lens) visual information and channel it in a way that makes it so much more valuable than when it was random, ...
Pastors have a special place in my heart.
My father was a pastor, as was his father. And I have been in active pastoral ministry all my adult life – for almost 40 years, now.
One of the most important lessons I have learned in all those decades is that there’s nothing ...
Effective communication is a passion of mine. But when we speak in front of people on a regular basis it’s easy to lose sight of why we’re doing it.
How many pastors have found themselves deep in the weeds in sermon prep, trying to find just the right illustration, ...
If you were in seminary or in active pastoral ministry in the 1990s and 2000s you probably remember what the big trend in pastoral training was.
Felt needs.
Back then it seemed like every church leadership book, article and conference was telling pastors that the way to reach ...
As pastors, we have a solemn obligation to equip church members to do ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Instead, too many pastors burn out because the pastor and the church members expect the pastor to do most or all of the ministry for them.
Making the transition from the doer of ...
The mission comes first.
Always.
Ahead of my ideas, my preferences and my well-worn, dearly-loved terminology.
Because of that, whenever an extra-biblical idea or turn of phrase is anything but clear in the way it advances the message, we need to find and use a better manner of ...
I don’t go to church to worship Jesus.
Hear me out. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Anyone can worship Jesus anywhere, at any time.
We don’t need a special building, a special day or a special time to do it. We don’t come into the presence of God when we enter ...
Great lives are made up of mundane tasks.
- Getting out of bed every morning
- Making sure the kids are clothed and fed
- Going to work
- Thanking a friend
- Being honest
- Helping a neighbor
- Showing up at church
We’re always told to pursue excellence. To accomplish great things. To be world-changers. ...
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