Why You May Need to Start Watering Down Your Messages Watered Down Coffee No one likes watered down coffee or diluting something valuable. That can be what it feels like at times when we try to market what the church offers to the unchurched. This can cause some to wonder if the modern church is just using bait and switch…
You can have an excellent weekend service and efficient systems, but still lose momentum by not being attentive to your church culture. It is crucial to win the battle in the spiritual, but also to remember the influence culture has on your church as well. Culture is not just your best intentions. It is the reality of what you guard, emphasize, and reward. Culture is the air your team breathes as they operate in your ministry and pursue your church’s ministry mission.
What is leading your decisions? In Twitter’s hay day it was popular for people to post the hashtag #youngminister and then give advice. I don’t remember posting advice with that hashtag, but I did enjoy reading the wisdom that came from more experienced leaders than me. I think if Moses was to use the hashtag #youngminister he would give advice…
Burning the candle at both ends I used to think my heart was the enemy. I thought to listen to my heart’s desires was tantamount to sin. I felt if I was suffering or doing something hard, then I must be pleasing God. Enjoying things or doing something that came easy was equal to not trusting God. Because of this…
It seems it is always popular to post and talk about doing more in the New Year. I think this is a big mistake. Doing less is the key to achieving more. Start With Less I’m not setting a bunch of goals for myself this year. Instead, I am only setting one goal. I asked myself, if at the end of…
5 Books to Read if You Are Burned Out Your church should be a place that refreshes you and gives you the opportunity to refresh others as well. Even in the best environments we can get caught up in what we are doing and lose sight of the why behind it. In general, it’s just a good idea to take…
A story of happy accidents. Do you have something you are passionate about but maybe are not the most talented in that area? For me, that is running. I started running almost by accident. One year, after moving to a new school, I found out I had missed football tryouts. Instead of sitting out of sports completely I decided to…
3 Ways to Handle Unmet Expectations Have you ever thought of the perfect comeback except it was too late? Maybe someone put you on the spot and you didn’t think of the right response until the ride home. You left the conversation with unfinished business. Once you realized precisely what you wanted to say the chance to show the world your wit…
Doing less so that you can accomplish more Have you ever seen someone is “doing too much” or being what we used to call a “try hard”? Maybe they are being inauthentic, trying to impress someone, or overcompensating for some reason. On the basketball court, he is the guy with all the new gear but can’t dribble or shoot. At…
4 Steps to Lead Your Team Out of Dysfunction Moses returned from his executive retreat to find his organization in total disarray (Exodus 32:9-10). You can see the four decisions that lead to this disaster in my previous post. The results of Aaron’s passive leadership led to the group getting off mission, internal corruption, and dangling on the edge of…