January 2018
It was a sunny, California Wednesday morning.
We were having our weekly staff meeting, innocently sorting out the details for an upcoming service, when I mentioned an illustration I wanted to close out my sermon with.
Then it happened.
One of the staff members spoke up. “We ...
For many generations, people who went to church would attend every Sunday no matter what. Whether out of habit, culture, tradition, denominational identity, fear of reprisal, or a sincere commitment to Christ and his church, when the doors were open, they were going to walk ...
As I talk with pastors and other church leaders, one question that pops up regularly is “it’s getting harder to get people to lead and/or attend our Sunday School classes (or Sunday night services, or prayer meetings, or VBS, or…). How do we fix this problem, ...
Ah, social media. You beautiful, hideous beast.
One of my least favorite current trends is the growing number of my Christian friends posting memes, blog posts and videos with headlines like these:
- “Young Student Humiliates Atheist Professor Who Tried To Tell Him God Isn’t Real!”
Hi, I’m Karl, and I’m still a small church pastor. But I won’t be in the first chair much longer.
On Sunday, my long-time youth pastor, Gary Garcia and I presented a plan for him to become the lead pastor of Cornerstone. I will stay on staff at the church, assuming ...
It’s hard when people leave a church.
It’s hard to leave. It’s hard being left.
Most who leave don’t make that decision lightly. They deal with some serious pain when they finally make the decision to go. As a pastor I’m more familiar with seeing ...
What weighs more, 100 pounds of bricks or 100 pounds of feathers?
It’s an old riddle. One that makes you facepalm yourself if you get it wrong.
The riddle works because it plays on our preconceptions and our tendencies to hear what we want to hear. Bricks weigh more than ...
Do what you love and the money will take care of itself.
That’s been a popular phrase for as long as I can remember.
Wouldn’t it be great if it was true?
I’ve also heard this related phrase for as long as I can remember: just preach the gospel, love people, reach ...
Why should I smile when I’m talking on the phone? Unless it’s a video chat, the listener can’t see me smile.
Because they can hear me smile.
Yes, you can hear a smile.
The same goes for talking on the radio, a podcast, or while preaching a sermon. Smiling when ...
Leading a church that needs a turnaround is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding callings a pastor can receive.
I’ve pastored three churches, all of which needed a turnaround, with varying degrees of success (more on that, below). From both my failures and successes, ...
The way people give is changing.
If your church hasn’t felt the results of those changes yet, you will soon.
If you are feeling them, you may be scrambling to figure out what’s happening, why, and what to do about it.
The good news: everyone is experiencing this, or ...
The church is not dying. It’s in fine shape.
Jesus said he’d build it, and he is. Relentlessly and beautifully.
But individual congregations, denominations and ideologies? Now that’s another story.
While the church of Jesus around the world continues to move forward, ...
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