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Difficult Conversations
Olu Brown, founding pastor of the fast-growing Impact Church in Atlanta, says that difficult conversations just come with the territory if you are a leader.…
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Olu Brown, founding pastor of the fast-growing Impact Church in Atlanta, says that difficult conversations just come with the territory if you are a leader.…
Matt and Kim Bloom, principal researchers with the Flourishing in Ministry research initiative, explain why clergy are at risk of burnout. Their research has found…
Virginia pastor Thomas James, a leading voice on the use of social media in ministry, says our modern world may require a new vision of…
Christian Coon, co-founding pastor of Urban Village Church in Chicago and author of Failing Boldly, believes that a key to fruitful ministry is the ability…
Ann Michel of the Lewis Center staff says church meetings should be holy ground where the Spirit can act because the people of God are…
One core commitment that can help a congregation engage younger people is a willingness to entrust teens and emerging adults with the “keys” to real…
Effective leaders are good communicators, according to Lovett H. Weems, Jr. They understand the importance of all forms of communication and that communication is always…
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.…
Perhaps the most important component to giving an effective speech is asking the right questions. There are three very simple questions your talk, speech, or…
“For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also.” (Matthew 6:21) Jesus talked a great deal about money. And in our monetized society,…
Think of a time when good feedback or a helpful suggestion made a big difference for you or for your church. Think about what you…
Everyone can improve how productively they use their time each day. It isn’t necessarily a matter of working harder or having the most items on…
National news recently quoted a speech by a Microsoft executive who said women should trust the “system” to take care of their pay raises. Previously,…
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…
A controversy arose recently over the Rolling Stone magazine cover featuring Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a Bob Dylan-like photo. Although the issue included…
Leaders must have feedback to grow. Those who become exemplary leaders start out much like others. What causes them to grow into stellar leaders is…
A phrase made popular by management writer Philip Crosby is “quality is free.” It reminds us that efforts to ensure that work is done right…
Often New Year’s resolutions tend to be grand and unrealistic. Perhaps that is why the failure rate is so high. Sometimes we do the same…
One of the least glamorous jobs of any church leader is attending board or committee meetings. Understanding the purpose, vision, and goals of each ministry…
December is often the time when congregations and denominations require annual evaluations of clergy and staff. Evaluation is a good thing. But when the only…
Have you ever sent an email and immediately regretted it? Most of us have. Google added a feature to its Gmail system called “Undo Send”…
How do we rebound from setbacks to our best-laid attempts to exercise responsible leadership in ministry? I recently returned from a large denominational gathering where…
God has given each of us the ability to do many things. Yet we have to make choices, to say no to some activities in…
A limitation to most feedback systems is that they tend to accentuate the negative. We know that leaders want and need feedback for growth, but…
How do you reignite a church when it seems that no one wants to lead? In every space and place, God wants transformation to occur.…
Just as all Christian leadership originates in our relationship with Christ, our day-by-day leadership depends on relationships with others that mirror the ideals of our…
Not long ago, I realized that I had spent several weeks in a reactive mode — constantly dealing with one thing after another that popped…
There is truth in the adage “Experience is the best teacher.” But how can we best capture the lessons experience teaches? A few years ago,…
Many people flinch at the mention of evaluation, and with reason. In congregations, staff evaluation often is conducted as a popularity poll with anonymous respondents…
When pastors tell me about particularly troubling dilemmas they face in their congregations, perhaps the most common advice I offer is, “Find a wise person,”…
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.