Church Leadership
Every time I preach there’s a chance I’ll say something stupid.
Sometimes my mistakes are harmless, like when I quoted God at the burning bush telling Moses, “Take off your feet, you’re standing on holy ground.”
Other times people get hurt. Sometimes ...
Show me a spiritually healthy church and I’ll show you a spiritually healthy pastor. Show me a spiritually unhealthy church and I’ll show you a spiritually unhealthy pastor.
If you’ve been the pastor of your church for five years or longer, it’s time to ...
I don’t like meetings.
Planning meetings, board meetings, staff meetings, committee meetings…
If I could jettison one aspect of pastoring, that’s what I would get rid of.
So why do I have them? Because, when done well, ministry team meetings are an essential ...
Most small church pastors are shepherds.
It’s not our choice, it’s our calling.
There are good reasons for pastors of large churches to move from the shepherding/pastoring model to the ranching/management model. But most pastors aren’t called to be ranchers or ...
Leading a church through change is hard. Even when it’s necessary.
In the 23-plus years I’ve been serving at Cornerstone, I’ve learned one principle that has helped keep everyone, including me, open to necessary changes without feeling overwhelmed by them.
Here’s ...
In 35 years of ministry, I've been asked a lot of questions.
Some are easy to answer, others leave me scratching my head.
I used to stress over the hard questions. Or give pat answers. Or take a stab at an answer and hope I’m right.
I don't do that anymore, since ...
Small churches are here and we’re not going away.
We’re tired of being treated like a problem that needs to be fixed, or ignored as if we don’t exist.
If you write or speak on church leadership issues, I implore you to take note of this huge oversight, and start ...
Sometimes the most dangerous threat to the truth is not a lie, it’s a lesser truth.
Lies are usually easy to spot.
Lesser truths are harder because … well … they’re still true.
At virtually every moment of our lives, greater truths and lesser truths are ...
Does your church have a mission statement? Could most of the people in your church repeat it?
If the answer is ‘no’, I have one word for you.
Relax.
You don’t need to call an emergency vision-casting meeting to remind everyone that they need to ‘Know, Grow ...
If you asked a few hundred church members from multiple churches what characteristics they were searching for in a pastor, what do you think they’d say?
You don’t have to wonder. Thom Rainer asked that question a while ago and published the top ten responses on his ...