CIVILITY / COMMON COURTESY
Our nation is undergoing dramatic change. It’s happening quickly and it’s noticed by everyone. We are connected to each other like never before, but we have never been so far apart. There has been a fundamental shift in the way we interact with one another. Civility and common...
LEADERSHIP: NOUN or VERB?
Far too many people view church leadership as nothing more than title, position and task. If that sounds overstated, one might take a look at the job descriptions that are out there for positions within the local church. Pastoral job descriptions often focus on the responsibilities of preaching,...
CHARACTERISTICS OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
In three weeks I am scheduled to visit my family doctor for an annual physical exam. It’s going to cost me time and money, and given the fact that I feel healthier than ever before, why bother? I have no physical complaints and there’s part of me that thinks, “if it isn’t...
LEADERSHIP: INCREASE / DECREASE
To be an effective leader one must possess and nurture godly character. I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 give us a glimpse into the heart of a godly leader. If you venture out beyond those texts you see a fuller view of the character God desires for leaders in His church. This blog post will shine the...
LEADERSHIP: PREPARER / PRODUCER
When I was a young leader just starting out, I wanted to conquer the world, and yes I wanted to do it overnight. A bit of hyperbole here, but a lot of truth as well. I jumped right in and was eager to make things happen. I was a producer. This was not all bad. I worked hard, a biblical...
LEADERSHIP: TENDING / TAKING
If I were to say, a church leader is a shepherd of God’s people, we would probably all agree. After all, it’s biblical. “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own...
LEADERSHIP: ANXIETY / PEACE
In the early 1990’s I stepped out of pastoral ministry for four years to do clinical counseling in a large metropolitan clinic. In that setting I encountered the entire spectrum of emotional and mental health issues that people contend with. I had encountered many of these issues in my...
LEADERSHIP: FORMATION / TRANSFORMATION
Let me state the obvious: Leadership is about change, it is not about maintaining the status quo. Leaders seeing themselves as agents of change is critical to the overall effectiveness of the organization they lead. When it comes to the local church, this has eternal ramifications. About 80%...
LEADERSHIP: PASSION / ENTHUSIASM
Those who know me well, know that I speak often of the importance of vision and strategy in church leadership. One should never underestimate the positive impact on our ministry when we have clear vision (we know where we are going) and clear strategic plans (we know how we are going to get...
LEADERSHIP: VISION / STRATEGY
The topics of vision and strategy have been front-and-center in leadership circles for many years now. More books and journal articles have been written on these topics than I can even count. Yet, many churches and leaders continue to struggle to cast clear vision and implement effective...
LEADERSHIP: CULTURE / DNA
Something interesting happens every time a visitor enters your church: He or she immediately experiences the culture and the DNA of your church. You cannot prevent it from happening, even if you wanted to. This experience is immediate and it is lasting. You’ve heard it said, you...
LEADERSHIP: FLEXIBILITY / ADAPTABILITY
A BIG QUESTION: How far outside your comfort zone are you willing to go to advance the kingdom of God? The answer to this question is critical. It is so critical, that at the end of this article I would ask you to enter into a season of prayer related to your answer. I would ask you to pray...
LEADERSHIP: SCIENCE / ART
Many of our evangelical seminaries do an outstanding job in equipping our future pastors to become theologians, astute in the exegesis of the Scripture and versed in the biblical languages. This is what I would call the science of pastoral leadership. This aspect of leadership development is...
LEADERSHIP: INFLUENCE / LEVERAGE
I have come to believe that at its very core, leadership is about influence. In their book, Building Leaders, Aubrey Malphurs and Will Mancini make this statement: “Leaders are doers, and what they do is influence” (p.22). Every leader I can think of, in the biblical narrative and...