The relationships between church boards and senior or solo pastors are challenging. In most evangelical congregations, the board and pastor have a complex, not easily negotiated relationship: All board members, including the pastor, are brothers in Christ, and equals before God. The board, in most cases, was significantly involved in the hiring of the pastor […]
Six Characteristics Of The Pastor Who Deserves To Be Followed (Revisited)
I received some pushback a while back regarding a couple of blogs I wrote about allowing pastors to lead their churches. I argued that most churches which are actually making devoted followers of Christ out of the raw material of lost people have pastors who are expected to actually lead. Actually leading means that these […]
Is Planning Unspiritual?
In a recent post, Ten Planning Principles From The Book Of Proverbs, I shared the results of a study I did on the subject of planning in that heaven-sent, down-to-earth book. I concluded at the end of my short summary that God commends planning which follows the principles found in Proverbs and He will bless pure-hearted, prayerful […]
More Great Ways To Storm The Gates Of Hades
In a post worship service discussion, a member of my congregation took me to task for comparing churches to support groups. What I meant was that as Christians in churches, we support and encourage each other as we go through life. What she heard, however – and, of course, every attendee hears a slightly different sermon […]
How We Can Storm The Gates Of Hades
‘Need something exciting to do? Does your church need an exhilarating new mission or purpose? How about “storming the gates of hades,” a phrase used by Jesus in connection with his first mention of the church? Here’s Matthew 16:18 (NIV) in its entirety: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock […]
Five Reasons Why We Must Storm The Gates
Before Jesus gave his disciples the New Commandment (John 13:34,35) or the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), he pronounced the Great Prediction of Matthew 16:18 (NIV): “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” There’s no actual command here. […]
Ten Planning Principles From The Book Of Proverbs
Is strategic planning Biblical? Is it wise? Is it helpful? The Book of Proverbs answers these questions with a resounding “Yes!” if we follow the following principles: 1. Planning, thinking deeply about our future work, is legitimate and wise. Don’t just “go with the flow” while claiming to be spontaneous or Spirit-led. (Somebody said that “Only […]
Five Things Struggling Pastors Need
You may have read a post I wrote recently entitled, Six things struggling pastors don’t need. In it I defined struggling pastors as those who, by their own admission, are neither happy nor effective. They are not having fun. They are not feeling successful. Their churches are not making new disciples. Here’s what I said […]
Six Things Struggling Pastors Don’t Need
Here’s what I mean by a “struggling pastor.” I’m talking about a pastor who, by his own admission, is neither happy nor effective. He’s not having fun. He’s bailing water and not keeping up. ‘Get the picture? Here’s what he doesn’t need: A new church I need to be careful here. Maybe he doesneed a new […]
Four Bottom-line Truths About Vision
Vision is like the weather: everybody’s talking about it but nobody’s doing much about it. Let’s try to de-mystify this a bit, and maybe we can do something about it. Vision is simply a dream, a mental picture, of a better future. As leadership begins with dissatisfaction with the current state of things and a […]
Three Occasions When Self-Awareness Is Vital For Leaders
“Know thyself. If I knew myself I would run away.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Self-awareness: conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires The elder who met me at the café was discouraged and confused. How could things have gone so wrong? The small, rural, congregation which he served had gone through a […]
Four Ways Pastors Must Be Faithful
Impartial juries. Fair-minded umpires. Faithful pastors. Some things are just expected aren’t they? Everybody expects pastors to be faithful. But what does Scripture actually say about faithfulness and pastors? We must be faithful to the Triune God Himself. It all starts here, of course. There is a sense in which pastors are professionals who work […]
Three Advantages Of Leading By Following
Our usual breakfast group of pastors was commiserating, again, about the highs and lows of trying to lead our churches. At some point the older, wiser denominational leader who was a part of our group spoke up: “You guys need to get ahold of the concept of leading by following. Figure out how to lead […]
Book Review: The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership: Getting the Job done
This is a different kind of leadership book. It’s not about theory and it does not purport to be about Christian leadership. This new volume by my old friend, Jim Bohn, a veteran of several decades with a Fortune 100 company and a number of years of consulting in the business and academic communities, is […]
Three Places Pastors Can Find Real Fellowship
My title probably seems odd to some readers. Pastors are surrounded by people in their churches and churches exist, in part, to provide fellowship for their members. But most pastors find that experiencing real fellowship – socializing that is deeply satisfying and moves us along in our spiritual journey – is a challenge. The norm […]
Book Review: Permission To Speak Freely
Doug Crandall and Matt Kincaid’s secular, business world-oriented book, Permission To Speak Freely, makes a great, challenging read for Christian leaders. Here’s the bottom line premise of the book, from page ix of the Foreword (by Shann Ray Ferch): “By not only listening deeply, but encouraging those around us to speak freely, leaders can create […]
Three Steps To Great Leadership In Your Organization
In an earlier post (Three great expectations for a leader) I’ve described some “best practice” leadership expectations for organizations that want to achieve real mission success: Expect your leader to dream – to pray down a vision from God for your organization. Expect your leader to design – to implement a strategy for mission fulfillment […]
Three Great Expectations For A Leader
Individuals and organizations have all sorts of expectations for their leaders: good ones, bad ones, ugly ones. Our overriding concern with our expectations for our leaders should not be what we want or what they want. It should be for what works and what works should be defined in terms of the organization’s mission. If […]
Three Reasons To Not Bring Your Politics To Work
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may […]
Why Pastor Johnny Can’t Lead
In 1955, author and writing consultant, Rudolph Flesch published what would become his most provocative book, Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About It. The volume was a critique of the “look-say” method for teaching reading and compared reading education in the US unfavorably to other advanced countries. In 1976, leadership guru […]
Book Review: Hit The Bullseye
It’s not every day that I would review a fifteen year old book, but Paul Borden’s Hit The Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim The Congregation At The Mission Field, is as timely, or even more timely, than when the author penned it. The former Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of the West, renamed […]
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