Subscribe free to "Leading Ideas" at churchleadership.com/leadingideas. Every Wednesday, "Leading Ideas" delivers information, resources, and strategies for forward-thinking church leaders.

Lewis Center for Church Leadership
You are at:»Category: "Leading Ideas" (Page 37)

Browsing: Leading Ideas

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 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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Passing the Baton to Your Pastoral Successor

In a relay race, there is an “incoming” and an “outgoing” runner. At different times, and in different races, runners must play either part. So it is in pastoral transitions. At various times in a typical ministry career, any given pastor will either be handing off the baton or receiving the baton. Pastoral leadership requires competency in both roles. In…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Christian Wallet Principles

Every Christian knows that we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But what about our wallet? We get asked to open it every Sunday when the offering basket comes by and are told that’s being a “good steward.” There is no clearer indicator of our ultimate values than our financial priorities and practices…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Freeing Laity for Ministry

How many members does your church have? Do you tend to think first of what those members need (hospital visits, sermons, childcare, parking, Bible studies, etc.) or the impact that number of passionate believers could have on your community? We tend to count pastors or staff when we calculate our capacity for ministry. It’s time to tap into the potential…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 The Spiritual Diversity of Congregations

Parishes are a special form of human community. At the heart of every parish is a motley crowd of ordinary people, each with an individual sense of self as well as a different capacity to perceive or ignore calls from the outside. Every parish I have been part of has some people of extraordinary openness and wisdom as well as…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Changing Congregational Trends

Every five years Faith Communities Today provides a marvelous service to all churches through their very thorough survey of religious congregations across the United States. Sociologist David A. Roozen and his colleagues have developed ways to monitor the pulse of congregational life. The 2015 report captures both continuity and change among U.S. congregations. Perhaps the biggest change since 2010 was…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 7 of John Wesley’s Practices Can Change Hearts Today

Roger Ross, author of the book Meet the Goodpeople, looks to the Wesleyan Revival for examples of effective ways of sharing faith. He says seven methods John Wesley used to reach the unchurched in the 18th Century can be reshaped to reach people today, including prayer, popular music, small groups, and lay empowerment. As a priest in the Church of…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Launching Sustainable Ministries

What do you do when someone in your church presents an idea for a new program or ministry? New initiatives can be empowering and energizing. But when the initial enthusiasm wanes, leaders can end up overwhelmed, disillusioned, and feeling unsupported. New ministries are more likely to succeed when they start with a solid foundation. I find it helpful to ask…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Cool Church Isn’t What It Used to Be

In a rapidly changing culture, churches cannot stay relevant by simply adopting the latest trend, says Carey Nieuwhof, especially as indifference to church grows. The keys to rebirth include deep authenticity, a true sense of mission, healthy relationships, an innovative spirit, and perhaps most of all, a sense of hope that goes beyond the mundane. For the last few decades,…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Worship Game Changers

Why worship? I mean really, why worship? This is the deeper question that is asked by the rapidly growing population of spiritually yearning, institutionally alienated people in Western culture today. This group includes people with no religious preference and “nones”; but it also includes a multitude of formerly active church members who are stepping further and further from regular worship…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Spiritual Growth through Mission Participation

Mission and service activities are increasingly the entry points through which people, particularly younger people, first connect with our churches. We hope that mission participation will help them understand who Jesus is, who God is, and how the church’s mission points to God’s Reign. We hope that it will lead them toward faith and into the church. But how do…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Becoming a Leader Who Says Yes!

During my tenth year as pastor of a large multi-staff church, the laity offered me a twelve-week study leave for rest, renewal, and learning. I was absent during the summer months as volunteers and staff planned the fall schedule. Upon my return, I discovered a program full of great new ministries — an eight-week lay academy that offered a dozen…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Next Sunday is Not a Presidential Primary

Following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a remarkable focus emerged among churches. We know there were instances of religious prejudice and harassment, but many churches immediately understood they had a role to play in fostering better understanding across diverse faiths. They felt called to educate themselves about faith groups beyond Christianity. When someone…

Read More
Leading Ideas
0 Next Generation Leaders

At an event I was approached by a well-dressed older woman who said, “We are willing to do whatever it takes to get the next generation of leaders involved. We will invest our time to train them, equip them, and guide them as they learn how to run this congregation. It’s their turn to step up, just like we did…

Read More
1 … 35 36 37 38 39 … 60

Shop



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.