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The following is my third post in a series, through which I’m seeking to offer church leaders and congregations, some hands-on help with the thorny issue of churches and political involvement. I’m hoping that church leaders will study my propositions, debate the details, and come up with their own, unity-enhancing position papers for their congregations. […]

Perhaps you’ve noticed that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for pastors and churches to simply “stay out of politics.”  As our nation strays farther and farther from a Judeo-Christian world view, an increasing number of Biblical-moral-ethical issues have become societal and even political issues. Our church members are grappling with these developments all week long, and […]

For a number of years, I’ve urged pastors and churches to stay out of politics.  While writing for a mega-blog, I tried twice to write posts about this subject.  The editors were so concerned about staying away from politics that they wouldn’t print my posts about staying out of politics! (A bit extreme, I thought.) […]

With help from Pastors Mark Phillips, Scott Ehle and George King “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly, and revere your God. I am the LORD.”     Leviticus 19:32 “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as […]

“…men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do-“ I Chronicles 12:32 “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibility over to them.” Acts 6:3 Nobody wants to prepare for a crisis.  It’s a lot of […]

“God must love poor people; He made so many of them”  Anonymous, but attributed to many sources Grownups had a saying when I was a child: “Don’t get too big for your britches!”  It meant, “Don’t get too high an opinion of yourself” or “Don’t be proud and arrogant” or “Don’t pretend to be something […]

“A change will do you good” From the song by Sheryl Suzanne Crow, Sheryl Crow, Jeffrey Trott and Brian Mcleod  “…dig up your unplowed ground…” From Jeremiah 4:3 and Hosea 10:12 I’ve written two posts now on the subject of ill-fitting staff members: church employees who – however gifted and dedicated – never were or […]

“It was he [the risen Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers…”  Ephesians 4:11 “…speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”           […]

Like an ill-fitting pair of shoes, ill-fitting staff members make for painful experiences for both the staff members themselves as well as the churches they serve.  It’s not easy to address these situations, but it’s important that we face the facts and get these individuals re-trained or re-deployed. Today’s post will be the first of […]

Last week I wrote about the conundrum of what to tell a congregation when a staff member has resigned or been dismissed under less-than-ideal conditions. We explored the options of: Full disclosure – Telling a congregation the gory details of the departed staff member’s failures, or No disclosure – Saying nothing publicly about the departure, […]

Here’s the scenario: Your church’s youth director has just resigned.  He was well-liked and seemed to be effective.  Most of the church has no idea what went on behind the scenes.  Only a few leaders know that there were character issues, accountability issues, communication issues, philosophy-of-ministry issues and eventually, personal issues between the senior pastor […]

I’m not picking on young pastors.  Not by any means.  Young pastors (and their families) are wonderful. Nor am I picking on churches which like young pastors.  Good for them. In fact, I want to commend every church on the planet which is aging but interested in younger pastors because they’re concerned about reaching the […]