Church Leadership
I've heard thousands of sermons. Good ones and bad ones.
I've preached thousands of sermons. Good ones and bad ones.
When you hear and preach that many sermons, you stop being impressed by the flashy things that don't matter and you start noticing the fundamental things ...
I don't go to church to be entertained.
I also don't go to church to be bored.
- I go to worship.
- I go to read and hear from God's word.
- I go to be taught.
- I go to be challenged.
- I go to be discipled.
- I go to fellowship with other believers.
- I go to be inspired into action.
Pastoring is hard work. But should it be this hard?
According to a post by Philip Wagner, Peter Drucker said that the four hardest jobs in America are:
- The President of the United States
- A university president
- A CEO of a hospital
- A pastor
(UPDATE: Please note the disclaimer about ...
Recruiting and keeping church givers and volunteers is harder than it used to be.
People keep saying it, so it must be true, right?
Wrong.
If I was ever tempted to tell pastors to quit whining about something, this is it.
Here’s how the party line goes: It used to be fairly ...
I’ve been in the church all my life. Literally.
On the first Sunday I was alive, I was in a baby basket beside my mother as she played the piano in my parents’ tiny, store-front, start-up church.
In recent years, I’ve worked with churches of virtually every denomination. ...
Good stories matter.
They can tell us truths that drill themselves deep into our core.
As Easter approaches, many pastors will be tempted to tell a feel-good story of spiritual renewal, personal growth and universal hope to our larger-than-usual congregations.
That's a good ...
I’m a big believer in planning. But I’m not a fan of meetings.
Yet planning requires meetings. So what’s the answer?
We can do more effective planning by having more effective meetings.
In fact, when the meetings are more effective, we can usually have fewer of ...
Patterns are good. Ruts are bad.
Patterns give us structure. Ruts keep us stuck.
Everyone who speaks in public develops speaking patterns. The danger is to not let those patterns become ruts.
That’s why I purposely change the way I preach every few years.
Three facts sit atop my list of things I wish someone had told me in Bible college.
FACT #1: 80-90 percent of pastoral ministry students will never pastor a church larger than 250 people.
FACT #2: Virtually all of us will pastor a small church for at least some time in ...
Too many pastors are living in constant frustration, anger, depression and burnout. Many have given up. Many more who would give up if they could.
Whether our churches are growing, static, sick, healthy, big, small or any combination of those, Pastoral ministry is increasingly ...
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