By Peter Steinke I have worked with troubled churches for 20 years. I never cease to learn from these experiences. The list below includes some of what I have learned about congregations in times of conflict: 1. Most people are interested in relieving their own anxiety rather than managing the crisis or planning for a […]
A Little More Detail On Brian’s Consulting Work
Help for SOLO and SENIOR PASTORS: Monthly, leadership-oriented coaching sessions via phone or Zoom “Listening ear” coaching/counseling sessions Revitalization leadership training, by way of Becoming Effective Leaders (BEL) groups of 3-8 pastors. BEL group participants meet monthly for nine months and gain leadership and church revitalization skills in the context of personal coaching and great […]
QUICK GUIDE – Pastoral Resignations (13 Ways To Leave With Grace)
Don’t go away mad. Seek a trusted advisor and work through your anger issues. Resign because God is leading you to resign, not because your emotions are leading you to resign (Ephesians 4:25-31). If God is leading you to resign, don’t equivocate or expect to be talked into staying. Make it clear and firm […]
QUICK GUIDE – Is My Church A Healthy Church?
A Worksheet For Individual Or Group Use 1. What is a healthy church? Why do we have differing opinions on this? Because it’s a theological (ecclesiological) question. Your theology of the church determines your definition of a healthy church. Common views from a couple of decades ago: “A healthy church is a church that’s getting […]
QUICK GUIDE – Getting To Sticky (Effective Pastor/Board Relationships)
The term and the concept of “Sticky” pastor/board relationships has been borrowed from Pastor Larry Osborne’s iconic book, Sticky Teams. Describing Sticky – Here’s what we mean by a Sticky church leadership team: 1.The senior (or solo) pastor is a godly and loving man who truly cares about each member of the church board and […]
QUICK GUIDE – Structure For Success
When it comes to church structure (constitutions, by-laws, policies, flow-charts, etc.): What works? What kind of structure is conducive to disciple-making effectiveness? The following are 30 “bullet point” sized suggestions. 1. Mission and vision driven – (or purpose driven) – What is your church for? Who is it for? What is it supposed to […]
QUICK GUIDE – Discipleship Pathways – Strategies For Discipling
Increasing numbers of evangelical church leaders believe in “intentional disciple-making.” This means having a plan, a system, a process for bringing new believers to maturity in Christ. We encourage every church to decide on a discipleship pathway for their own congregation. It may be very imperfect, but an imperfect discipleship pathway is far better than none […]
QUICK GUIDE – Coaching Staff Members
You may know the name Marcus Buckingham as the creator of the Strengths Finder inventory and the author of the popular book Strengths Finder 2.0. We recently had the chance to see Buckingham’s 2017 presentation from the Global Leadership Summit entitled “Reinventing Performance Management.” The talk was so practical that we want to […]
QUICK GUIDE – An Alternative To Pastor Performance Reviews
The relationships between church boards and senior or solo pastors are challenging. In most 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 involved in the hiring of the pastor and the writing or […]
QUICK GUIDE – Senior Pastor Performance Review
Based on the paper, “The Pastoral Performance Review: An Opportunity to Empower” Contact Rev. Scott Roen for the complete document – scottdavidroen@gmail.com PERSONAL MATTERS: (As far as the board is able to determine the following…) How did the pastor take care of himself physically? How did the pastor take care of himself emotionally? How did […]
QUICK GUIDE – Succession Planning For Pastors
Condensed from “Succession Planning”, NL Moore & Associates Planned or unplanned, every church will go through a pastoral succession. In the next 10 years, more than half of all churches in America will go through a pastoral succession. There are not enough students in seminaries today to fill the empty pulpits that already exist […]
QUICK GUIDE – Training Elders
I agree with Pastor Larry Osborne that the health of a church begins in the board room. Pastor/board unity is the key to church unity. The leadership of a united board will usually be followed by a united church. We believe that elders should be trained for their critically important role. It is not enough […]
QUICK GUIDE – Church Revitalization
Our awesome God loves to revitalize churches! Some Christian leaders suggest that most churches are so ineffective after thirty years that they should be replaced. We believe that it is much more glorifying to God when churches are revived, not replaced. Our observation is that Jesus will remove a “lampstand” when He has to, but […]
STRATEGY – Strategic Planning Template #8
Introductory Quotes: Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? “For most churches, doing anything intentionally would be an improvement.” Anonymous “Vision is worthless without strategy.” Attributed to Aubrey Malphurs “…anyone who fails to define their strategy is not only foolish but also demonstrating poor management of the time, talents and treasure of their […]
VALUES – Strategic Planning Template #6
Valuable Thoughts On Values: Values are the underlying assumptions and beliefs about what is important, that guide our decision making and our behavior. They are what’s important to us as we seek to achieve our purpose, fulfill our mission and realize our vision. They are a big part of a church’s CULTURE. Values […]
VISION – Strategic Planning Template #7
The creation of a vision statement vies with the identification of a focus (or target) group as being the most controversial aspect of the strategic planning (hereafter: SP) process. It has, in fact, been said that there are two kinds of pastors in the world: those who love talking about vision and those (probably a […]
PURPOSE: Strategic Planning Template #2
Is there a difference between mission (what the church is supposed to DO) and purpose (the ultimate reason for why the church EXISTS)? 1. Some evangelical writers/thinkers say “no,” there is no difference and leave it at that. 2. Other evangelical leaders confuse the issue (in my opinion) by coming up with several purposes […]
FOCUS GROUPS – Strategic Planning Template #5
In my experiences of helping churches with strategic planning tasks – clarifying their purpose, mission, designer disciple, values, vision and strategy – the most controversial part of the process has always been the possible choice of a target or focus group. A focus group is a demographic niche which a church deliberately decides to concentrate […]
OUR DESIGNER DISCIPLE: Strategic Planning Template #4
“Designer disciple” is not a great term. It conjures up all sorts of images and most them are not good. But I’ve never heard a better term, so for the moment, we’ll stick with it. The concept is not to be confused with the “Saddleback Sam” or comical “Green Bay Gary” type character who is […]
FINDING OUR MISSION: Strategic Planning Template #3
Jesus wasn’t always easy to understand but He did make the church’s mission clear and simple. Study Matthew 28:16-20 – There is only one command here in the original language. What is it? Three participles (ing words) describe how the command gets done. What are they? Going – this is the action that we must […]
INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS – Strategic PlanningTemplate #1
Some say that strategic planning (hereafter: SP) is a trend in the business world and therefore shouldn’t be applied to the church. However: The fact that it’s trendy in the business world doesn’t make it wrong. SP should be judged by Biblical and practical criteria, on its own merits. Planning, with humility, the fear of […]
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