Read These First – The Essentials
Scan the titles and excerpts, then click to read more. They’re listed by the order they were written, but each one stands on its own, so you can read them in any order you’d like.
AWESOME /ˈôsəm/ (Adjective) Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.
I’ve had it with people trying to tell me how awesome I am. Especially fellow pastors.
We should know better.
I’m not sure exactly when ...
Adapt or die.
That's especially true in small churches.
The good news is, because of our size, small churches have the ability to adapt more quickly than our larger counterparts. Like steering a speedboat instead of an ocean liner.
Sadly though, that’s not ...
Just because a church is small doesn’t mean it is stuck.
But the truth is, many small churches are stuck.
If small churches want to keep being vital elements in Jesus' Great Commission strategy, we need to be able to tell the difference between a strategic small church ...
Breaking through the 200 barrier.
Sometimes it feels like that's the only pastoring principle anyone has talked about for the past 30 years.
In case you haven’t heard of it, the 200 barrier is the invisible ceiling a church must break through if it doesn’t ...
TRITE /trīt/ (Adjective) Overused and consequently of little import, lacking originality or freshness.
It’s easy to become trite when you’re a pastor.
After all, we’re in constant output mode. Whether we’re preaching, teaching, comforting or just ...
“Why do you want churches to be small?” I hear that question a lot.
My answer? I don’t want churches to be small.
Wanting churches to be small is like wanting Hawaii to be sunny, or vegetables to be nutritious. We don’t need to want it. That’s ...
Innovative small church?
Do those three words belong in the same sentence? Can innovation happen in a small church? Is it even possible in an older small church?
Turning a tired, dying congregation into a fresh, innovative church is one of the greatest challenges a pastor can ...
"What am I doing wrong?!"
How many small church pastors constantly torture themselves with that question?
And it doesn't help that someone's always writing another list to tell us about the mistakes and sins we must be committing that are keeping our church from ...
No one ever built a great church by emphasizing what they're against. (Well, no one but Jesus ever built any church, but you get what I mean.)
After all, the word "gospel" means good news.
What you're against may be really bad. And opposing it may be ...
The 200 Barrier needs to be retired.
We have to erase it from our church leadership lexicon before it does any more harm to good churches and their pastors.
Yes, there is a difference in the way churches behave administratively under and over 200 (give or take 50). It ...
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