Many church leaders are telling us that there isn’t going to be a return to “normal” any time soon, or ever. Even if your “good old days” were in 2019 (instead of 1955), the 2019 version of “church as usual” isn’t coming back. Even churches which weren’t even slightly interested in experiencing revitalization are facing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 Opportunities For The New Year
“The secret of the Christian life is a series of new beginnings” George Sweeting In my home area of northwestern Wisconsin there is a village which is prospering and attractive. It’s not my home-town, I’m sorry to say, it’s ten miles up the road. Back during my adolescent years, my village was prospering and the […]
Senior-itis And Senior Pastor-itis
I think we all know what senior-itis is: the arrogance/impatience/excitement of the high school senior who feels like she’s: (a) an adult, trapped in a child’s existence (b) so much smarter than her parents (c) a college student on the inside who is suffering terribly by having to attend high school and live with her […]
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 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 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 […]
Ten Questions For The Post-Covid Church
I’m seeing a lot of internet traffic these days on the subject of the Post-COVID Church: the way evangelical Christianity is going to look, in America, after the pandemic is over. I appreciate every attempt I’ve seen and heard to make sense of this crazy year and to predict the future. I don’t have a […]
Is There Hope For The Small Town Church?
God brought me on a journey so I could meet Joe Humrichous (pronounced: HUM rick house). The physical journey was an uneventful trip to northeast Indiana. The spiritual journey was more exciting. I had just finished writing, A Really Great Church! in which I sought to point my readers to the sufficiency of Christ for […]
Seven Positive Things Pastors Can Do Right Now
These are difficult days for my pastor friends! I keep hearing about anger and division over: COVID prevention strategies, President Biden’s election, charges of voter fraud, threats to civil liberties, local church political involvement, etc. Pastors are taking it on the chin like never before. While there’s little a pastor can do about any of […]
Worn-Out Shoes And Fair-Haired Boys
“Why don’t you love me like you used to do? How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe?” Hank Williams Here’s a phenomenon I’ve seen a number of times. If you’re an experienced leader, I’m sure that you’ve seen it too. An older, generally respected, long-time leader of an organization recruits or hires a […]
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 – 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 – 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 – 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 […]
Mission And Vision Contrasted: Why Pastors Need To Share Their Dreams
SUMMARY: Sharing your church’s mission is good, but also sharing what you believe God wants your church to become (your vision) is even better. Here’s why: You’ve probably heard management and leadership contrasted: “Management deals with what already exists; leadership deals with what will or should exist.” “Management deals with present realities; leadership deals with […]
