Nelson Searcy in the book Renegade Pastor talks about a battle that many pastors and church leaders face that really isn’t talked about. Yes, we talk about the pastor’s spiritual battles. The wars waged against Satan, the demon in the audio equipment on Sunday morning, the growth wars, and the blackness of our own sin nature that always creeps up....
How do you explain why some people are able to achieve things that seem impossible? How is it that some companies, like Apple, year after year, always seem to lead innovation? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement? Why is it that the Wright Brothers were the ones that discovered controlled, powered man flight when others were more...
The process of hiring additional staff in our churches is often a very precarious task. There really is no written rule of who should get hired or when, just some random suggestions floating around out there. So it’s no surprise that staffing is one of the hottest topics that pastors are looking for answers to today. Of course, you don’t...
So most teams shy away from conflict. I mean, why would you want to be a part of a team that is fighting am I right? But right there is the first misconception. Naturally when we think of the word conflict, we think of arguing, raised voices, and tempers. But who says that conflict needs to be that way. Conflict...
No matter how long your church has had small groups, there always seems to be some questions and unique circumstances that can catch leaders off guard. And while there can never be a “training manual” or blog that will 100% prepare you, some basic knowledge on how to keep calm, give appropriate responses, and lead the group can drastically help....
Planning can be difficult and time consuming. We plan our our meals, our kid’s sports schedules, and vacations. Everything seems like it needs to be planned. And then those couple of pesky things that were not planned always pop up and ruin the plans that we just made!! Grr. Sometimes it is easier to understand why so many people prefer...
As pastors, it’s important for us to be productive. We all have 24 hours in a day to get things done and we need to make the most of our time. But have you ever thought that as the leader of your church, your productivity is determined by more people than just you? Now what we mean by that is that...
Leadership. It’s the buzzword in churches all across America. We spent tons of time and money trying to learn about leadership. We go to conferences, we listen to podcasts, we buy books all to try to learn that one little nugget that is going to grow our church larger, push us to become a better leader, and make our churches...
Great leaders engage and develop others. Most likely this doesn’t come as a surprise to you. It’s the topic of conferences, mentors, and books everywhere. How do I develop others? It’s a great question. A huge part of being a great leader is finding, developing, and investing in others who can serve alongside you and work to accomplish the vision...
In the book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian do an excellent job describing 4 different points of transition in a church’s growth and how pastors need to make mental shifts along with these transitions. But he also brings to light a big barrier that affects a large percentage of churches. This first barrier is having...