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Leading Ideas
Delivered every Wednesday, our free e-newsletter Leading Ideas offers articles by thoughtful, cutting-edge leaders on subjects you care about — navigating change, reaching younger people, financing your ministry, communicating effectively — to help you be the leader God is calling you to be.

The Lewis Center is committed to helping congregations and denominations thrive and grow by providing ideas, research, resources, and training for vital and fruitful leadership. Through Leading Ideas, we share vignettes of leaders and congregations, book reviews, leadership quotes, and helpful “right questions” built around the premise that leaders don’t need answers — they need to know the right questions.

Leading Ideas
0 Too Few Sunday School Teachers? Try a Team Approach

John Wimberly reports how creating a team of four teachers for each children’s Sunday school classroom had the paradoxical effect of easing the burden of recruiting teachers at Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. It also led to a greater sense of camaraderie and more creative problem solving. I had been having the same conversation with Christian educators at Western…

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Leading Ideas
0 Why You Can’t Build a Church around the Pastor

Reflecting on the forced resignation of a mega-church pastor in South Carolina, Roger Lovette says serious problems follow any time a church is built around a particular individual. Pastors and congregations must remember that the church belongs not to them, but to Jesus Christ. Since I have been back in South Carolina the last four years, I have heard the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Living Through a Church Renovation

Daniel Hilty says that any large-scale facility renovation requires a congregation to tolerate a tremendous amount of change and disruption. It’s critical to share information, listen to concerns, and acknowledge grief and loss. But perhaps the most important task is reminding the congregation of the “why” behind all of the changes. Any church that has ever considered a building renovation…

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Leading Ideas
0 Leadership for Worship

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says that few areas require more sensitive and creative leadership than worship. Merely asking someone what worship practices they prefer does not take account of the multiple values inherent in worship leadership. An interactive approach is needed to take into account theology and history as well as the perspectives of the pastor and the congregation. I…

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Leading Ideas
0 Ten Hints for Leading Volunteers

Jill Fox lists ten things to keep in mind to develop a ministry team with healthy and happy volunteers, and one that is also attractive to new volunteers. The best leaders, she says, share responsibilities and help make their team members’ jobs clear, relevant, and fun. What do volunteers on a ministry team need? How can you prepare for success?…

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Leading Ideas
0 Four Questions for Congregations

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says vital congregations are clear about their mission, outwardly focused, oriented toward the future, and concerned more with results than processes. He outlines four questions that can help keep a congregation on track when it comes to these essential attributes. “How are we doing?” is a question that all leaders within a congregation need to keep…

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Leading Ideas
0 Five Keys to Becoming a More Inclusive Community

Mark DeYmaz and Bob Whitesel maintain that congregations must become more inclusive communities that embrace oneness across race and class distinctions. They advise that churches examine their worship, leadership, language, resources, and planning to consider whether these five key areas of congregational life reflect openness and a true commitment to diversity. Churches can no longer ignore the systemic segregation of…

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Leading Ideas
0 A Better Way to Report on Giving

Stewardship experts Kristine Miller and Scott McKenzie explain why publishing weekly and year-to-date giving amounts in the Sunday bulletin with a “woe is us” message can undercut people’s desire to give by creating the impression that your church is not financially stable and fiscally responsible. Income for churches never comes in fifty-two equal installments, so long-term giving trends must be considered…

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Leading Ideas
0 Coffee Shop Conversations

Scott Chrostek, pastor of Resurrection Downtown, visited thirty-three coffee shops during his first month in Kansas City with a daily goal of having thirty-five conversations that led to discussion of his church. He says these encounters were often “holy surprises,” even when his conversation partners were seemingly uninterested in church. Scott shares strategies for maximizing the opportunity to meet neighbors…

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Leading Ideas
0 Six Ways to Make Change Stick

Pastor Charles Stone, who has studied how brain chemistry impacts our ability to process change, recommends six specific strategies to help congregational leaders embrace change. Getting leaders on board first is a critical step that avoids organizational disruption and ensures that the change will be a lasting one. Wise leaders understand that lasting change requires that individuals change first before…

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Leading Ideas
0 Congregations as Political Systems

David Brubaker says that while every congregation is a political system, political activity doesn’t need to be manipulative, polarizing or demeaning. He outlines four requirements for a church to function as a healthy political system. Congregations, like all organizations, are arenas for political activity. While we tend to think of politics as pertaining to governmental entities, the phrase “workplace politics”…

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Leading Ideas
0 A Simple Planning Process

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., outlines a simple planning process that churches can use to identify issues and concerns and develop realistic plans to address them. Key to the success of this process is narrowing the focus to the five concerns most critical to the congregation’s future and coming up with one or two action steps for each. Several years ago I…

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Leading Ideas
0 How Leaders Create Culture Every Day

Leaders are culture creators, writes Ryan Stigile. Their words, actions, and decisions reinforce community values. When the culture of an organization conforms to its values, others can be empowered to lead with assurance that everyone is moving forward together in the same direction.   I’m becoming more and more convinced that the greatest responsibility of a senior leader is to develop…

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Leading Ideas
0 The Power of Stories

Jill Fox, an expert on church volunteer systems, reminds us how powerful stories can be in teaching and motivating people and keeping them aligned with the church’s vision. Anyone can become an effective storyteller, she says, by listening, making note of memorable anecdotes, and focusing on communicating them simply and succinctly.  Maybe you’ve heard a story that made you want…

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Leading Ideas
0 Embracing Electronic Giving

Adam Copeland of Luther Seminary says electronic giving is the preferred method of giving for most churchgoers, including your most faithful givers. Reducing the barriers to giving via smart phone, recurring contribution on a debit or credit card, or even by text message, often requires a shift in culture. It is more than good fundraising. It is a matter of…

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Leading Ideas
0 Building Attendance through Special Focus Sundays

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., and Tom Berlin discuss how congregations can reach more members and visitors through Special Focus Sundays that emphasize a particular cause or constituency, such as a Blessing of the Backpacks Sunday or recognition of teachers or first responders. Just as individuals and families have their own distinctive cluster of special days, so growing congregations often have…

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Leading Ideas
0 Predictable Surprises in the Church

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., encourages congregations to uncover and prepare for their “predictable surprises.” Leadership is about the future, so leaders must take the future quite seriously. Their eyes must look beyond the current horizon even as they live in the present and honor the past. Knowing what the future will hold is problematic at best. Since forecasting depends so…

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Leading Ideas
0 Roadblocks to God’s Future

Alan Roxburgh describes established patterns, habits, and values that operate in the background of every church, standing in the way of renewal. We must, he says, be less preoccupied with the church and more attentive to the Spirit out ahead of us. If God is calling us to a new journey, such as dwelling with our neighborhoods, how do we…

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Leading Ideas
0 Becoming the Person God Created You to Be

Laurie Haller says that clergy going into a new church can only lead effectively when they are authentic to who they know they are and who God wants them to become. Spiritual growth, she says, is in large part a journey toward knowing not only who God created us to be but who God is calling us to become. Whenever…

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Leading Ideas
0 The Myth of Balance

Karoline Lewis writes that the notion that one can keep all the important aspects of life in perfect balance is an unattainable myth. It can be debilitating when too much energy is spent chasing this illusive goal rather than coping with the real issues and circumstances that vie for one’s time and attention. Balance is a myth. It is simply…

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Leading Ideas
0 Three Keys to Identify and Develop High-Impact Leaders

C. Anthony Hunt writes that the development of high-impact leaders is critical to the ongoing effectiveness, vitality, and growth of congregations. Discerning the gifts, passion, and commitment of potential leaders is key. A church that engages in careful discernment with regard to leadership identification and development creates a leadership climate that maximizes the use of the gifts, passion, and commitment…

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Leading Ideas
0 3 Surefire Ways to Fail in Developing Leaders

Tony Morgan says that church leadership development efforts often fail because they are programmatic rather than personal,they are limited to specific roles, and they move people into leadership before they are ready. Most churches are stuck when it comes to leadership development. In my work with churches across the country, the ones excelling in this area truly stand out. They…

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Leading Ideas
0 Avoiding a Summer Drop in Worship Attendance

Ann Michel of the Lewis Center says by sustaining quality worship and programming, churches can prevent an anticipated drop in summer worship attendance from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. In most churches, summer is considered a low time when worship attendance slips far below what is average at other times of the year. But when churches ratchet back their worship and…

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Leading Ideas
0 Why Typical Groups Miss Typical Members

Lovett Weems reports on research suggesting that it’s possible for the less engaged to become more engaged in your church, but not by asking them to mimic the activity patterns of those already deeply engaged.  A major research project led by Nancy Ammerman, professor of sociology of religion at Boston University, offers what has been called the most in-depth “mapping…

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Leading Ideas
0 How Incoming Pastors Can Navigate the Changeover Zone

In a relay race, the two runners exchanging the baton run in tandem in their changeover zone lane of 20 meters. For most runners, this distance is covered in about seven steps while the receiving runner grabs hold of the baton and sprints out on the next leg of the relay. If you are an arriving pastor entering into the…

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This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.