A Biblical Perspective on Trauma
What is trauma? And how can congregations be a space of healing for the traumatized? Lewis Center Director Doug Powe interviews Paul Cho, a professor…
Author
Paul K.-K. Cho
Paul K.-K. Cho is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and the Director of the Master of Theological Studies program at Wesley Theological Seminary. His research interests center on the literary and theological interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. He has recently written Willingness to Die and the Gift of Life: Suicide and Martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible (Eerdmans, 2022), available on Cokesbury and Amazon. He previously wrote Myth, History, and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2019), available on Cokesbury and Amazon. Cho is Presbyterian and served local congregations in New Haven and Toronto.
Doug Powe
F. Douglas Powe, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and holds the James C. Logan Chair in Evangelism (an E. Stanley Jones Professorship) at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He is also co-editor with Jessica Anschutz of Healing Fractured Communities (Palmetto, 2024) and coauthor with Lovett H. Weems Jr. of Sustaining While Disrupting: The Challenge of Congregational Innovation (Fortress, 2022). His previous books include The Adept Church: Navigating Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Abingdon Press, 2020); Not Safe for Church: Ten Commandments for Reaching New Generations; New Wine, New Wineskins: How African American Congregations Can Reach New Generations; Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith; and Transforming Community: The Wesleyan Way to Missional Congregations.
Coaching Leaders and Congregations to Reach their Full Potential
How can you connect the dots between where your church needs to be headed and the steps needed to get there? Doug Powe interviews Chris…
Understanding Generation Z and Connecting with Their Passions
What are the unique characteristics of young people coming of age today? Rock Jones, president of Ohio Wesleyan University, describes a generation of digital natives…
Leading with Imperfect Knowledge
Leaders today are faced with the challenge of deciding how to move forward with imperfect knowledge. Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says leaders must risk…
A Different Approach
Doug Powe of the Lewis Center suggests congregations take a different approach to Black History Month this year. He outlines ideas to encourage church members…
Leading During Turbulent Times
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe writes that the tragic events of January 6 demand our best leadership. He outlines ways church leaders can respond to…
8 Trends Impacting Church Leadership for 2021
In January, Doug Powe and Ann Michel of the Lewis Center identified eight notable trends in 2020’s swirl of change. Some trends have been underway…
Reaching New People This Christmas Is More Important Than Ever
Ann Michel and Doug Powe of the Lewis Center write that the pandemic makes connecting with new people this Christmas more important than ever. But…
The Church and Election Day
Although congregations are prohibited from endorsing candidates or parties, Doug Powe and Ann Michel of the Lewis Center staff say there is much a church…
8 Factors that Make You a More Influential Leader
A leader needs influence to move a community in the right direction. Eight key factors can help you gain and keep influence writes F. Douglas…
3 Ways to Counter Online Fatigue
Are you and your church growing weary of so many online encounters? There are different ways of connecting safely that don’t involve staring at a…
Rethinking Esther’s Leadership
Esther’s story turns in many ways on a very traditional understanding of female roles and influence. But Esther’s capacity for innovative and creative leadership offers…
Online Worship Makes Evangelism Less Intimidating for Many
One apparent advantage of an online worship format is that people seem to be more inclined to extend and respond to invitations to check out…
Get Ready for the New Normal
As restrictions on gatherings imposed by the COVID-19 crisis begin to ease, congregations are likely to find themselves in a both/and reality. They will need…
Is Your Congregation a Swamp, a Reservoir, or a Canal?
Is your congregation cut off and inwardly focused? Primarily a storehouse of resources? Or a connector that brings things together? The images of swamp, reservoir,…
The Adept Church: Navigating Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Learn how to determine your church’s best way forward! How can you help your congregation take an honest look at challenges in their church? And…
Staying Connected in a Time of Social Distancing
How can congregations sustain a sense of community and care for one another when most gatherings have been suspended? Some simple strategies can be used…
The 4 “C’s” of Impactful Leadership
Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe says that courage, conviction, collaboration, and creativity are four characteristics of effective leadership evident in the powerful legacy of…
5 Emerging Trends Impacting Church Life
Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe and Associate Director Ann A. Michel reiterate the importance of nine major trends they outlined last year. They also…
4 Ways to Make Christmas Eve Hospitality the Pattern for the Year
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says special efforts to welcome visitors at Christmas shouldn’t be set aside once the holiday is over. He outlines four…
4 Ways to Lead Effectively When Expectations Change
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe explains that church leaders today are forced to lead amid constantly changing expectations. He outlines a four-step process to help…
3 Strategies for Leading Beyond Your Blind Spots
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says we all have characteristics that others recognize but we can’t quite see in ourselves. Effective leaders see past these…
4 Strategies for Reversing the 80/20 Rule
How can a congregation move beyond having a small percentage of congregants doing the lion’s share of the work? Lewis Center Director Doug Powe outlines…
Quit Making Assumptions
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says incoming leaders are often frustrated when others assume that they already know the ins and outs of the job.…
The Changing Face of Ministry
Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe describes shifting staffing patterns and ministry models emerging as more and more mainline congregations suffer decline. The Lewis Center…
5 Leadership Insights from Jethro
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says when looking for leadership lessons in the Bible we shouldn’t focus so much on Moses that we skip over…
4 Key Practices of Community Engagement
Sam Marullo and Doug Powe, both Wesley Theological Seminary faculty members, have developed a simple model to help congregations engage their communities in meaningful ways.…
3 Leadership Principles from Archbishop Tutu
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe learned through firsthand experience working with Desmond Tutu the key principles of the archbishop’s leadership effectiveness. Powe says Archbishop Tutu was…
4 Ways to Create Accountability for Discipleship
Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says it’s common for many individuals within a congregation to be responsible for discipleship. But often, no one person is…
Church Childcare Programs: Income Generators or Missional Opportunity?
Nursery schools and childcare programs are more to churches than a source of rental income. Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says they offer important missional…