Winter 1993

Announcing your retirement early has its advantages.

Five ways church members will react in a fight.

Six ways to remember your value.

Breaking the barriers to spiritual intimacy.

A workable way to answer the question What did you do this week?

In the ministerial box score, which stats really matter?

Boundaries can lengthen and strengthen your ministry.

You rarely hit creativity by aiming at it directly. You have to point at a larger, more substantial target.

An interview with Jim Cymbala.

Personal memories can salve death’s sting.

How one pastor kept himself from bailing out.

Spiritual Direction for today from a thirteenth-century saint.

A sense of calling returns from the disabled list.

Some of the new lasws that impact ministry.

Contemporary worship that flows is flexible, but it isn’t random.

What do you become when ministry rubs the wrong way? Toug? Or tender?

Doing God’s work in windswept places.

When you tell others about your church, is honesty the best policy?

While agreement is wonderful, sometimes conflict is better than consensus.

Sometimes conflict is better left alone.

These days it takes something extra to get a building permit.

A clear word at the right time can keep the church from getting separated.

Five questions to ask before speaking in a secular situation.

Learning to communicate in ways a congregation expects.

Pastoral ministry demands more than playing to your strengths.

A Leadership Survey sizes up church leaders spiritual growth.

To win support for ministry requires the right attitude

Sermons grow stronger by wrapping your mind around big ideas

Sometimes it’s wrong to take the blame.

How to perform when you have a tough act to follow.

What some couples want in a ceremony borders on bizarre.

How do you follow the Lamb when you’re shepherding lions?

Six creative approaches to an awkward pastoral dilemma.

How one near-casualty was saved and returned to ministry.

How to arrest ministry’s nemesis, Procrastination.

Seven leaders identify ministry’s most strategic points.

Bringing color and fragrance to historic church is what you’d expect from a pastor named Rose.

Pastoral lines you may not be around long enough to regret.

An interview with Bill Hybels

An interim pastor can turn a church with problems into a church ready for progress

Preachers and listeners perform a dance of the spirit, and sometimes Someone Else cuts in.

Facing determined guerilla forces may be a no-win situation.

If you can’t fight city hall, join forces.

Sometimes it feels like this isn’t a congregation but a bus depot.

Why your brightest ideas aren’t always warmly embraced.

Criticism comes with the territory, but sometimes it crosses the line.

When church workers resist the draft, start enlisting them.

How to tap authentic emotions, both yours and the listeners’.

Four ways that prayer is productive.

How one pastor calculated the costs of addressing abortion.

The Prophet Joel said old men would dream dreams. What about old congregations?

Steps to putting a forced farewell behind you.

Willow Creek’s Steve Pederson describes how Broadway fits the Narrow Way.

I continually have to monitor my spiritual life. How much of it is form without substance?

One pastor’s toughest call.

How to provide what the sick and dying need most.

Different ways to observe the Christian discipline of prayer.

The persistent creativity required to find a place to worship.

How to be your own best think tank.

A few good habits can improve the quality of your ideas

After six days, God’s creation was done. But for pastors…

While some may thrive on heated confrontation, most of us long for a calmer, more compassionate means of resolving differences.

Loneliness is an unavoidable by-product of a culture that believes individual rights are more important than community.

With patience and a sharp eye, you can spot them in the wild.

Even traditional churches can gain a healthy flexibility.

Seeking God with our own temperamental prayers—an interview with Charles Killian.

How to respond (and not respond) to chronic complainers.

How one pastor’s family withstood the trauma of sexual abuse in the church.

When things look hopeless, you can call in outside help.

Everyone stumbles. The graceful regain their balance.

A new legal landscape faces churches that want to build.

Having to speak doesn’t always mean you have something to say.

A day alone with God may be your most important appointment.

How to regain morale and momentum, if you’re so inclined.

Conversations with God can wander into wonder.

Above all else, pastors need fresh and frequent experiences of God’s presence.

Trying to fit into a new church can give you culture shock.

Can pardon be freely given for the worst offense?

Developing spiritual fruit requires being around people–ordinary, ornery people.

How come restlessness pursues us even to paradise?

Some forms of next century’s church may be remarkably familiar.

It’s a mistake to preach out of dogma or doctrine without freshly seeing where the gospel is occurring.

The oft-forgotten ministry to those with Alzheimer’s.

When you’re the church lightning rod, you have to be well grounded.

In ministry, you sometimes find yourself questioning God’s grand scheme.

A Leadership Forum probes the vital signs of spiritual fitness.