Tag: Ministry
-
Top 3 Needs of the Church Today
The late great John Stott was asked: “What are the top three needs of the church today?” Here is Stott’s prophetic three-fold response: The church’s most basic need is to remember what kind of community it is, and in particular its double identity. For God calls his people out of the world to belong to…
-
Leading in the Construction of Christ’s Church
As one who has benefited from reading Jim Collins, John Kotter, Stephen Covey, and several other leadership gurus from the business world, I found this quote from Tony Morgan‘s Developing a Theology of Leadership to be a very helpful reminder and convicting corrective: It is true that we church leaders can learn from business leaders,…
-
5 Things Church Members Wish Pastors Knew
Anyone who has ever served on a ministry staff for any measurable amount of time knows the twin realities of the incredible joys and the exhausting difficulties. Perhaps this tension is part of the reason why there is such large drop out rate among pastors and other ministry leaders in the American Evangleical Church. Ministry is a tremendous privilege,…
-
Is Bigger Really Better?
No matter how much I have grown to despise the discussion, it seems I cannot avoid it entirely. Almost any conversation about church, it seems, inevitably gravitates in some form toward the Bigger is Better or Great Things Come in Small Packages debate. It is not always an actual debate. In fact it is probably…
-
Downward Slide
Ed Stetzer offers thoughts on the paradox he sees growing in Evangelical circles: Church planting and other ministry initiatives are on the rise, while evangelism is suffering a downward slide. Stetzer: Downward Slide
-
Thoughts on Easter Giveaways
I was stunned the first time I read about the plan of a church in the area where we then lived to give away prizes at an Easter gathering. And they were not just going to give stuff away, they were planning to create a frenzy. A helicopter was leased, piloted by some guy in…
-
Numbering the Sheep on the Ranch
Blogger Tim Challies is at the Together for the Gospel Conference, surrounded by other church leaders. No surprise then that he is hearing this common question all around him: “How many people go to your church?” And apparently Challies, whose primary vocation is writer not pastor, has some concerns about this question: I’d like to…
-
Ministering to Missing Millennials
Why are Millennials walking away from our churches? Why are a number of our own kids walking out the doors? Why does the church seem impotent to change the direction of this rising tide? While my wife and I are blessed to have all of our kids active in church, including our two college aged…
-
Growing People for Service
by Daniel Radmacher Have you ever wondered why we are not born as adults? Probably not, I would wager. Seriously, though, have you ever considered the fact that God could very easily birth us as grown-ups? We could come out of the womb fully formed intellectually and spiritually, with only our physical dimensions to catch…
-
24 Tips for Preachers
My friend and once-upon-a-time informal mentor, Randy Nabors, has posted a score of tips for preachers on his blog, Randy’s Rag. I learned a lot from Randy just by hanging out and watching when I was a young pastor living and serving in the Chattanooga area. I post Randy’s Tips here because they are worthy…
-
Here AND There
We don’t just go to church, we ARE the church …sent out by the power of the Spirit to BE the church. This illustration above represents two aspects of being a faithful church: Attractional – those elements of a particular congregation that draw people into the church community. Among these would be the quality of…
-
Sad State of Evangelicalism
An excellent, “must read”, article by Mark Galli for Christianity Today: The Troubled State of Christian Preaching. This is a great example of a “I Wish I’d Said That”. All of Galli’s insight resonate … Here is the gist of Galli’s tought, set within the context of the Presidential Inauguration and Louie Giglio being put…
-
10 Contemporary Sacred Cows That Need Tipping
My grammar school days were lived out in a plush Philadelphia suburb. My first taste of culture shock came just before I entered high school, when my family made a cross country move and settled into a cul-de-sac home in a nice new development in a then-more-rural area outside Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. It was in…
-
4 Possible Paradigm Shifts for the 21st Century Church
I am not sure in what context or venue he said this, but billionaire financier Warren Buffett is credited with having noted: “In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” Whatever the initial context, there is much wisdom in this insight that can be…
-
Christian Leaders Learn to Think Theologically
Here is an important thought for my fellow pastors, and other ministry leaders. It is also important for shaping what church members should value in and expect of their pastors and Elders: Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology…
