2018
The world is changing. In good ways and bad.
If you live in America’s Bible Belt (predominantly the Midwest and South) you are probably feeling the impact of these changes to a greater degree than those of us who live outside it. And those feelings are likely to grow for ...
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
That’s one of those truisms that’s actually true – in church and in life.
One of the hallmarks of healthy churches is that they work hard at making a good first impression. Helping guests make the leap from ...
The smaller the group, the more likely there will be a higher percentage of members engaged in the goals of the team.
This is true for groups of all types, including churches.
In the last few years I’ve come to appreciate this principle in some very concrete ways. And it’s ...
So, you pastor a small, struggling church.
You’re trying to help it become less small and less struggling, but all the “can’t miss” answers from the latest church growth conferences never seem to work for you.
You don’t have a big worship team singing ...
No church is perfect.
Some churches make mistakes but keep growing and moving ahead at lightning speed, while other churches make similar mistakes, but can’t seem to make even the smallest forward progress.
Every pastor of every plateaued church experiences this. And every ...
Big churches and small churches design their budgets very differently.
While large churches spend their time balancing percentages, designing requisition sheets, and tracking an increase or decrease of giving as one measurement of the church’s health, small churches deal ...
One of the airtight principles of church leadership is that you can tell what a church’s priorities are by looking at where they allocate their funds.
That is true in some churches, but not in all. Maybe not in most.
Here’s why.
The vast majority of churches are small, ...
Are you an underliner? I am. Unless I’m reading for pleasure, it’s almost impossible for me to pick up a book unless I have something to underline or highlight it with.
When people read books, they tend to underline or highlight the sentences they agree with. Give ...
Not all change is good.
The church exists to worship the God who never changes, as seen in a book whose newest pages are 2,000 years old. That’s some serious long-term consistency.
But the way that permanent message is delivered always changes. Traditions that we think of ...
Finishing well in ministry really matters to me.
Especially since I now have more ministry years behind me than in front of me.
I want every day of my ministry life to matter. And I want to end it having brought honor to Christ, his church and my family.
This has become even more ...
What do pastors, politicians and major league coaches have in common? A whole lot of people who’ve never done their job are convinced they could do it better.
The less experience they have the more certain they are, because those who’ve actually done it know how hard ...
Preaching matters.
According to no less an authority than the Apostle Paul, the spoken message of Christ crucified is one the ways God has chosen to bring his message of salvation to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
Because preaching matters, those of us who are entrusted to ...
Are you a pastor trying to make needed changes in the church, but meeting a lot of resistance every time you introduce something new, like a worship song, curriculum or order of service?
Here’s a universal truth that I discovered through decades of experience trying to ...
Introducing people to faith in Christ is a central component of what it means to be the church.
Like me, many of you were raised and still minister in an environment where the Great Commission is followed by a public call to salvation at the end of every church service.
The Altar ...
Last week, Saddleback Church celebrated an amazing spiritual milestone. Since their founding 38 years ago, they have baptized 50,000 new believers.
That is something the entire body of Christ needs to pause and thank God for. 50,000 people making commitments to Christ in one ...
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