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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 Identify Community Ministry Needs by Listening

In order for churches to stay relevant to a changing world, we need to be very tuned in to what is happening “out there.” Sending congregation members out to listen can be a great way to engage them in developing new ministry. When they hear with their own ears and see with their own eyes the achievement gap in the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Old Habits Die Hard

I grew up working with my parents in our country grocery store. Those were days before the advent of large drug stores with hundreds of over-the-counter medications and dozens of customized variations of each of them. With limited alternatives available, we sold Bayer aspirin as a cure for virtually any ailment, from headaches to arthritis. Most bought small “tins” containing…

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Leading Ideas
0 Lattes, Ashes, Prayer, and Conversation

Traditionally, the Ash Wednesday service in my church has been in the evening. People come for confession and repentance, carry the sign of the cross on their heads for 30 minutes, then go home and wash it off. Last year, inspired by one of my seminary colleagues, I announced to the congregation that I would set up shop at a…

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Leading Ideas
0 Doing Community Ministry in the Small Church

Sometimes I interact with small congregations that assume that any significant community ministry effort is beyond their reach. They often keenly feel their limitations as they work to keep internal church programs going with limited staff and volunteers. So how could they ever engage the community in any significant way? With the right approach, it is possible for a small…

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Leading Ideas
0 REdesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community

Kim Miller’s REdesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community (Abingdon, 2013) provides valuable how-to advice on reviving tired church interiors and offers inspiring examples from her own work at Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio. But the book’s more significant contribution is the angle of vision she brings to this subject — a perspective solidly grounded in the theology of hospitality,…

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Leading Ideas
0 Nelson Mandela — A Leader for His Time

Late last year, the world paid tribute to the remarkable life of Nelson Mandela. Some said there had been nothing like it since the death of Winston Churchill. Such would be appropriate since any short list of great leaders of the last century would have to include both names. One commentator said that when notable public figures die, it is…

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Leading Ideas
0 Starting the Year Poised for Growth

Christmas and New Year’s are just behind us and Lent is on its way!  Consequently, there is plenty to do. But thanks to the generosity of a lot of great mentors, here are some things I’ve found helpful to do in the first quarter that reap dividends throughout the year. Goal Setting with Staff and Leaders Focus is essential to…

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Leading Ideas
0 What Church Leaders Can Learn from Other Enterprises

I believe church leaders have much to learn from prayerful and careful consideration of a broad range of management and organizational practices. And based on my experience over the past several years in leading several churches and non-profit organizations through transition and turnaround, I believe some key concepts from the realm of business development can apply to church leaders involved…

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Leading Ideas
0 Doing a Christmas Eve Offering Well

In our culture, Christmas is a season of giving when church-goers and non-church-goers alike are inclined toward generosity. I witnessed a Christmas Eve service in which the offering was handled extremely well. I was struck by four particular things. The offering taken at Christmas Eve services is an important giving opportunity, especially for those who don’t regularly attend church — but…

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Leading Ideas
0 Leadership is Always about Others

There are many, many things about leadership that we do not know. However, there are a few truths about which we can be sure. One of the most important of such certainties is that leadership is always about a group, not the leader. The group may be a sports team or a congregation, a youth group or a nation. The…

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Leading Ideas
0 Developing a Thank You System for Your Church

Saying thank you promptly and regularly is one of the simplest and most effective things a congregation can do to reinforce good stewardship and enhance giving. When people are thanked regularly, they feel appreciated, valued, and needed — which makes them more likely to support ministry with their time, talents, and financial support. To accomplish this, churches need a thank…

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Leading Ideas
0 Always Say Thank You

Paul, my dear church friend whom I have known since third grade, sent me an email. And he was mad. At the end of July, Paul mailed a sizable check to our childhood church in Southern California. The purpose of the check was to establish a camp scholarship marking the 40th anniversary of the passing of our friends Van and…

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Leading Ideas
0 A Consensus Model for Conducting an Annual Meeting

Each year, my congregation holds an annual meeting to review the past year, give updates on issues, and share projections for the coming year. We traditionally have used formal parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order for this meeting. While this approach has some advantages, sometimes it has led to unnecessary confrontation and power struggles. And those who are less…

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Leading Ideas
0 Asking Instead of Telling

You pick up some books because of the author and some because of the title. This one called to me for both reasons. Through Edgar Schein’s foundational work, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed. (Jossey-Bass, 2010), I learned what it means to look at a congregation through its artifacts, espoused values, and goes-without-saying assumptions. Schein prepares leaders to read corporate…

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Leading Ideas
0 Are Young Singles Invisible in Church?

St. Bartholomew’s is a friendly congregation. It has always perceived and represented itself as a warm and caring community and is the home to some 300 worshipers each Sunday. There is pride in a full range of programs and occasions offered for the congregation and its members. These young people had not felt welcomed by the music or the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Lessons on Engaging Young Adults Effectively

How can a congregation effectively engage younger adults? The Faith Communities Today (FACT) study provides some clues. As part of the largest ongoing religious research project in the U.S., the study focused on the active involvement of young adults in participating faith communities and involved a multi-year examination of ten congregations with a sizable presence of young adults between the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Add Off-Site Christmas Eve Services This Year

Rev. Mack Strange suggests conducting off-site Christmas Eve services at restaurants, nursing homes, prisons, and even bars to connect with the community. Many churches know they are not connecting with the world around them but don’t know what to do about it. One marvelous way to reach out in a grace-filled way occurs on Christmas Eve. The celebration of God’s…

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Leading Ideas
0 A Christmas Tree Sale that Does More than Raise Funds

Five years ago, Vale United Methodist Church in Oakton, Virginia, began a Christmas tree sale to support the mission work that was so central to our congregational life. In our first year, we sold 145 trees and netted about $3,700. Last Christmas, in 2012, we sold 320 trees and raised almost $10,700. Now an annual project, the tree sale has…

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Leading Ideas
0 Reaching More People during Advent

Advent is a prime season with rich potential for engaging church members and new people. There is arguably no time in the year when people are more interested in what the church is offering than during Advent. What attracts many to church this time of year is the realization that the church shares this season in a way that has…

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Leading Ideas
0 Encouraging Personal Devotion during Advent

December is a time when people are looking for experiences to share with friends and families. Church leaders can plan in advance to offer events and guide individuals and families in ways that will bring greater meaning to Christmas preparations. Because of the pace of December, with its special decorations, parties, gifts, and other activities that people enjoy, people may…

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Leading Ideas
0 Connect Community Events to Worship

For years, Harvest Church hosted a community-wide dodgeball event for teenagers. We advertised it well, and hundreds of kids participated. The winners got cool prizes and everyone had a good time. It seemed like a huge success, but we began to notice that very few of the new kids had gotten involved in our student groups or come back for…

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Leading Ideas
0 Host Bridge Events to Reach New People

One of the disciplines of a disciple of Jesus Christ is to establish relationships with people we do not know — the unconnected — therefore becoming missionaries. This can be done through relationship-building events designed to draw people from your community into relationships with people from your church. We call these events bridge events. Bridge events are conducted outside the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Percentage of Older Clergy Reaches Record High

The Lewis Center for Church Leadership today released the 2013 version of its annual report on Clergy Age Trends in the United Methodist Church. The report is prepared with assistance from the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits. United Methodist elders ages 55-72 reached 50 percent for the first time ever in 2010 and continues to grow as a percentage…

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Leading Ideas
0 Dreams Take Leadership…and Time

Will Campbell died earlier this summer. He was known as an eccentric Baptist preacher who fought fiercely for justice but was never comfortable with the conventional practices of churches. Campbell grew up “dirt poor” in rural southwest Mississippi and was the only white person present at the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Martin Luther King, Jr.…

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Leading Ideas
0 The Ten Minute Rule

The first impression guests leave with determines whether they will be back. So what is it that goes into a good first impression? We interviewed a number of people who had recently visited a church for the first time. We asked them what made the biggest impression on them and what effect it had on their decision to return 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.