If you have read my blog for long or follow me on social media, you know that I have 100% embraced the word (and its meaning) INTENTIONAL. We call our initial visioning session the “Intentional Workshop.” We have developed the “Intentional Church Series” manual, and I use the hashtag #intentional with most of my posts.
I believe in being intentional … deliberate … on purpose.
Read More >Do you have the disease that’s going around offices, schools and teams these days? It’s really contagious and can be disastrous. It’s called “foot-in-mouth disease.”
Read More >There are certain ministry roles have more conflict between them than others. Senior Pastors and Youth Pastors, Church Administrators and Youth Ministers, for example. There is also sometimes significant tension between the Worship Leader and the one preaching Sunday. This is obviously not the case in every church, but it is in many churches.
Read More >Perhaps you’ve noticed, but a few people are beginning to campaign for the presidential election in 2016. Ultimately, the field will narrow to two (maybe three). I’m not a political junkie, but I try to pay attention to someone who might end up leading my country.
Read More >Just as every pastor should be concerned about church health, every true believer should be interested as well in how to be a “healthy church member.” As we focused on the local church in the last blog, I thought I would address the topic as well from a local church perspective.
Read More >A few months ago, I was having a dialogue with Rich Birch of Liquid Church (and unSeminary) about one of his blogs: Is “Multisite Church” the Last Good Idea?
Rich asked me to add some commentary to his post, as we have shared in collaborating on other subject matter related to multisite church, including Birch’s contribution to Church Locality. The premise of the blog was whether or not multisite was the last good idea for church growth and multiplication, which spawned a lot of good conversations.
My comment to the blog supported multisite as a great tool for church multiplication, but I had a slightly different take. Here was my response.
Read More >Many cultural changes affect generation gaps. For instance, my father’s choice of 1960’s rock is quite different than my preference of 1990’s rock. And we all know music style can be a contentious issue in the Church.
Technology, however, is often cited as the main wedge between generations in the U.S. culture.
Read More >Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling Purpose Driven Life, is often quoted as saying, “Healthy things grow.” As the pastor of one of the largest and most influential megachurches at the time, many pastors used Pastor Warren’s quote to push for numerical growth.
Read More >I’ve consulted with dozens of churches formally, and perhaps hundreds informally. However, many churches never evaluate their ministry with any rigor.
The reason, these churches say, is because they don’t see the need for the effort, expense and potentially difficult season (emotionally) inaugurated by bringing in someone from the outside or going through an evaluation process. In my experience, those who refuse to evaluate themselves are either trying to avoid seeing empirically what they already know to be true through experience (painful), or are deferring pain in hopes it can be avoided by grasping for quick-fix solutions in the present (“We got this”).
Such mindsets betray feelings of, We could fix this if we really wanted to or really thought there was a problem. The words of the late Dr. Charles Siburt come to mind here: “Then why haven’t you?”
Read More >Most people don’t like change. Most leaders want to challenge the status quo. Leadership is, in part, the process of helping people see the need for change, embrace the vision for change, and then implement the change.
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