Here’s the last “bad pastor” horror story I’ll share for a while: Even before I completed the interim pastorate, Donna and I were beginning to have concerns about the new long-term pastor who had taken my place. He had expressed anger with our church members for not hosting him as enthusiastically as he thought they […]
Recovering From A Pastor Disaster
The parsonage was empty…again… This time it was left a little dirtier and messier than it was a year ago. It looked like somebody had departed in a hurry, and they had. The rookie pastor’s first year with the church turned out to be his last year with the church. He loaded the moving truck […]
What Can We Do About Our “Bad Pastor”?
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” Psalm 133:1 This is my sixth post in six weeks on the subject of “bad pastors.” I’m putting the term in quotation marks because we’re dealing with a subject which is – admittedly – highly subjective. A “bad pastor” is a pastor which […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church?
I recently dedicated four posts to the question of “Why would a good God send us a bad pastor?” (Click here for the first of the four.) I followed it up with a post on how to recover from a “bad pastor” and what a church member should and should not do if his church […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Two)
Back in my childhood there was a TV show called “Queen for a Day” which I watched with my mother when I was home sick from school. Each show was a contest between women – mostly housewives (we called them back then) – who had endured miserable lives, dealing with one catastrophe after another. After […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Three)
Back in the 1990’s, I attended the same big, wonderful pastor’s conference year after year. I often showed up at the conference in tough shape physically, for it was always held during the peak days of my “big-time” allergy season. I would cough all night – sleeping in a storeroom at times so as to […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Conclusion)
I would guess that most pastors have believed, at one time or another, that they have been sentenced to serve as the pastor of a “bad church.” The problem is inherent in the job itself: In the best-case scenario, serving as the solo or senior pastor of a church is a challenging role. In far […]
The Pastors Who Should Pursue Church Revitalization In A Cohort
I’m just now (June, 2026) wrapping up a one-year revitalization cohort with four great pastors from three states. It has been a joy. I have learned a lot from these guys and I’m pretty sure that they and their churches have each been helped significantly. We met via Zoom, once a month for 12 months, […]
Let’s Invite The Young Into The Greatest Movement Ever
“Son, that’s just the way it is. Some things will never change.” Bruce Hornsby, 1986 Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk there’s been a lot of great discussion about the movement he had begun and how attractive it was, and is – now more than ever – to young people. This has been a great […]
Taking On The Crowd: 23 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Rebuking Your Congregation
Sooner or later, most pastors will sense that it’s time to “take on,” confront, rebuke or correct their congregation. Some combination of (1) his people’s words or behaviors (2) a compelling teaching of the Bible (3) the constraint or leadership of the Holy Spirit, or (4) the pastor’s own impassioned spirit, will convince him that […]
Welcome Home! Meeting The Assimilation Challenges of 2024, Part Two
I hope you like the “horror” genre, because I have an assimilation horror story for you: A pastor friend of mine was visiting a congregation which was joyfully celebrating the ordination of the young man who was about to become his associate pastor. During the service, the pastor announced that there would be a potluck […]
Seven Marks Of The Closed-System Church
Let’s get right to it. In the business world, a closed-system at the leadership level means that the senior leaders are listening to themselves and each other, but to no one else. Those in production are shut out of the decision-making process, as are the front-line workers, as are the customers. These companies go from […]
Eight More Helpful Hacks For Beleaguered Pastors
The Super Bowl is history. As usual, the team that won the “time of possession” battle won the game – not by much, but they did win it. The Bible gives us plenty of excuses for using the language of military conquest and athletic competition. We are to endure hardship, to storm the gates of […]
When Majoring On The Majors Becomes A Major Problem
I’m a big believer in majoring on the majors. For a local church, majoring on the majors means loving God and people and faithful obedience to the Bible while we’re pursuing our one God-given mission of making disciples. For a denomination, majoring on the majors probably means helping its churches to be what I just […]
The Heart Of A Great Revitalizer
My post today is a book review, sort of, but please don’t change the channel too quickly. If you are part of a church which needs revitalization, this post will help you. Studying Brian Croft’s, Biblical Church Revitalization (Solutions For Dying And Divided Churches), will likely help you greatly. I’m going to give you some […]
Ten Ways An Interim Pastor Can Jumpstart The Revitalization Process
Before we can consider the role of the interim pastor in church revitalization, I think I would do well to clarify who these guys are that I’m talking about. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of interim (or some say, “transitional”) pastorates: The exploratory or trial interim pastorate is undertaken by an individual who is […]
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