Whether your church has sixty-five people or sixty-five hundred, money matters. Even so, many pastors tell me that they find budgeting to be—at best—a necessary-but-distracting process. I’ve never heard a young pastoral candidate confide that the initial...
Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue
As we begin another presidential election year, followers of Christ may have sentiments like recent election cycles. Many of us see both good and bad in the competing positions of those seeking office, but we despair over the incivility and contempt...
Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)
“Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.” Psalms 25:16 Alone! Why do I feel so alone in the leadership of this ministry? With dozens of people around me, I feel separate, isolated and cut off. What am I supposed to do, Lord? Do I carry this...
Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe
There is no subject in the modern day church more polarizing than tithing. Even the very mention of the word brings strong emotional responses from both ministers and members. No one seems to be opposed to its validity, only its necessity. Most group...
The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need
Tramping through the snow, I stop for a moment. Everything around me is perfectly still. Only my footprints break the surface of the pure, white snow, and even these are behind me and out of sight. As far as my eyes can see, the world is untouched, asleep. The...
The View from Rock Bottom
When a friend of mine received a difficult diagnosis, she chose to share it on Facebook as she tried to process her feelings. She was grappling with her new reality: At barely 21 years of age she had a chronic, incurable condition, one that meant coping with daily...
Methods Change and Shift, but Christian Values Remain the Same
Discipline, commitment, and persistence matter very little in the long run if you are committed to the wrong things. Passionately wrong is still wrong. Persistence in error is still error. Right or wrong, your life and behavior are defined by the things you value....
Single and Looking for a Church Home
It’s not always easy to love those who are different, those we don’t understand, or those with whom we can’t relate. But if the church is going to win the lost, we first have to find a way to reach them. And to make them feel at home. It’s not just those outside the...
Evaluating Our Ministry’s Fruit
Like many areas of professional experience, Christian churches have utilized standardized methods to determine effectiveness and decision-making. Pastors are inundated with record-keeping designed to help leadership determine the success or failure of...
What Christian Theology Has to Do with My Reality
I was born the day before my father started seminary. My dad loves to quip, “My mentors recommended I not start a family and grad school at the same time, so I started my family on Sunday and seminary on Monday!” It must have been a nightmare at the time, but the...
Budget Blunders
Whether your church has sixty-five people or sixty-five hundred, money matters. Even so, many pastors tell me that they find budgeting to be—at best—a necessary-but-distracting process. I’ve never heard a young pastoral candidate confide that the initial...
Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue
As we begin another presidential election year, followers of Christ may have sentiments like recent election cycles. Many of us see both good and bad in the competing positions of those seeking office, but we despair over the incivility and contempt...
Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)
“Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.” Psalms 25:16 Alone! Why do I feel so alone in the leadership of this ministry? With dozens of people around me, I feel separate, isolated and cut off. What am I supposed to do, Lord? Do I carry this...
Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe
There is no subject in the modern day church more polarizing than tithing. Even the very mention of the word brings strong emotional responses from both ministers and members. No one seems to be opposed to its validity, only its necessity. Most group...
The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need
Tramping through the snow, I stop for a moment. Everything around me is perfectly still. Only my footprints break the surface of the pure, white snow, and even these are behind me and out of sight. As far as my eyes can see, the world is untouched, asleep. The...
The View from Rock Bottom
When a friend of mine received a difficult diagnosis, she chose to share it on Facebook as she tried to process her feelings. She was grappling with her new reality: At barely 21 years of age she had a chronic, incurable condition, one that meant coping with daily...
Methods Change and Shift, but Christian Values Remain the Same
Discipline, commitment, and persistence matter very little in the long run if you are committed to the wrong things. Passionately wrong is still wrong. Persistence in error is still error. Right or wrong, your life and behavior are defined by the things you value....
Single and Looking for a Church Home
It’s not always easy to love those who are different, those we don’t understand, or those with whom we can’t relate. But if the church is going to win the lost, we first have to find a way to reach them. And to make them feel at home. It’s not just those outside the...
Evaluating Our Ministry’s Fruit
Like many areas of professional experience, Christian churches have utilized standardized methods to determine effectiveness and decision-making. Pastors are inundated with record-keeping designed to help leadership determine the success or failure of...
What Christian Theology Has to Do with My Reality
I was born the day before my father started seminary. My dad loves to quip, “My mentors recommended I not start a family and grad school at the same time, so I started my family on Sunday and seminary on Monday!” It must have been a nightmare at the time, but the...
Helping Your Small Group Thrive
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