2017
Have you been struggling in your church, but can’t understand why?
Maybe you’re doing what you believe God is calling you to do and you’re taking wise counsel from others, but there doesn’t seem to be any progress made?
This post might be for you.
I’ve ...
No one is as committed to our local church as we are, pastor.
Well, almost no one. There’s Jesus, of course. And we might have some hard-core members who live, breathe and die by their congregational involvement.
But the average member – even the most consistent attender ...
Every church goes through different seasons and cycles.
Knowing and appreciating the differences between them is essential to leading a church to greater health and effectiveness.
While seasons and cycles are both ways to describe the rhythms of rising and falling, ebb and flow, ...
Christmas Eve has come and gone.
As you scroll through social media, you’re seeing all the rave reports from fellow pastors about full churches, beautiful productions and salvations.
But, while you’re happy for them, you don’t respond. Because, in the small church ...
The Christmas story is so simple. And so weird.
How simple?
Everyday simple – literally. As in, millions of times every day simple.
A baby is born.
How weird?
Other-worldly weird. Not-even-in-a-comic-book weird. It-can-only-be-a-miracle weird.
That baby is God, the creator of ...
If your ministry is about helping people reach their full potential, I have a favor to ask.
Leave me alone. Please.
I’m not interested.
Everywhere I go lately, especially on the internet, people are obsessed with helping me
- “Be the success you were born to be!”
Church is not a place we go, it's who we are. The New Testament is really clear about that.
But because church is who we are, it also matters a great deal that we go to church, too.
Church attendance should not be the defining feature of our Christian lives. After all, God ...
There are three lists of pastors that I’ve been keeping track of in my head. Maybe you’ve been keeping some similar lists yourself.
I haven’t kept these lists consciously. Until now, anyway. But after several recent episodes in which pastors have landed on these ...
If I could only teach one vocational principle to young pastors-to-be, it would probably be this.
Learn how to pay the bills outside of your pastoral salary. You’ll probably need it.
Whether you want to be a church planter or pastor an existing church, it’s likely ...
When I was in training to be a pastor, I was taught to create a sense of urgency to reach people for Jesus.
I was taught wrong.
- “Jesus is coming and you’d better be ready!”
- “The world is a mess and only Jesus can fix it!”
- “What if you were to die today and didn’t have a relationship with Jesus?”
I’ve never lived in a predominantly Christian culture.
But lately, I’ve been travelling a lot through the Bible Belt, so I’m seeing what a Christian culture looks like for the first time in my life. Churches on every corner, Christian radio and TV on more than ...
When I’m a consumer, I want great customer service.
Whether online or in real life, I want products and services that meet my needs in the best, quickest, friendliest manner possible.
But I don’t want that from church.
Sure, I’d rather experience a church service ...
Have you ever had a chat with someone who was constantly looking over your shoulder to see if there’s someone better to talk to?
A lot of us may be doing that to the church we’re pastoring.
One of the main reasons many churches stay unhealthy is that too many pastors ...
Effective leaders always seek wise advice and counsel.
If you, like me, are a small church pastor, you know there’s a huge expectation for us to treat everyone’s advice as though they all have equal value.
We’re often told that getting everyone’s input ...
I had another one of those “only in a small church” moments last Sunday.
The positive kind.
As I was shaking hands at the door after the service, I chatted with a man who’s been attending for a few weeks. He told me he was thinking about making us his permanent ...
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