Determine On What Hills You Are Willing To Die
As a much younger leader, I wanted to fight about everything. Growing in this particular understanding may be more a factor of aging and maturing.…
Browsing: Leadership
Articles
Reach More Volunteers
If the idea of recruiting volunteers has been a challenge in the past, you are not alone. But getting rid of the mind-set of recruiting…
Building Community through Ministry Teams
As wonderful as our worship gatherings are, everyone sitting in long rows facing a pastor is not real community. Large gatherings of people for corporate…
That Would Never Happen Here
One of the great blessings of my life is knowing W. Clark Randall. Before his retirement, Clark spent his professional career as a senior executive…
Building Trust for Effective Team Ministry
Trust is probably the most oft-mentioned and common ingredient within great ministry teams. Experts from all fields of team building agree on this essential. All…
Giving our Best to God?
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…
Listening: A Key Team Building Skill
It just may be that the best way to make people feel truly honored is to listen to them with rapt and sincere attentiveness. Few…
Finding Focus in the New Year
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…
Working with Committees and Boards
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…
Limitations of an Annual Review
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…
Developing Your Own “Undo Send” Button
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”…
Surmounting Leadership Defeats
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…
Stewarding God’s Gift of Time
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…
The Risks and Rewards of Being an Associate Pastor
Let’s face it. Working as an associate pastor is not glamorous. You are not preaching every Sunday, your name is not on the church sign,…
Showing Appreciation for Your Pastor
Some of you may know that October is designated Pastor Appreciation Month in some denominations and congregations. This is not a major national observance, but…
A Keystone Habit for Our Time
A much-talked-about book currently is The Power of Habit. The author, Charles Duhigg, attempts to answer the questions, “Why do habits exist, and how can…
Metrics: A Tool for Learning, Not Judging
The current focus on setting numerical goals for ministry and reporting on the results is not new, though it is now greatly expanded. In the…
Feedback without the Pain
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…
Stewards of God’s Grace
A noted British economist recently submitted to the government a review of the equity markets in England. In writing about the current situation of financial…
A Wilderness Experience
For a number of years our leaders have been using “exile“ as a metaphor for the situation of the church. Their assumption is that we…
Continuity and Change: Two Tunes All Leaders Must Know
It is exciting to hear of the energy and vitality with which so many churches are planning for the future. Many of you report changes…
Planning Inspired by the Spirit
Drawing on his experience leading a strategic planning process, Pastor Myung Sun Han identifies key lessons to keep a church-wide planning exercise positive, productive, and…
Tapping the Gifts of Homebound Leaders
People who must remain at home because of physical limitations have often been seen by the church as recipients of ministry rather than as active…
Lessons from Wesley for All Churches
Martin E. Marty once observed that between the time of Luther and Calvin and our own time, John Wesley symbolized the genius of adaptation to…
Gaining Commitment
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.…
The Tussle over Metrics
Church leaders may think that leading in the business world is so much simpler than in the church since there is “one bottom line” and…
Leaders Do What Is Needed
One of the vivid images of the 1960s is a picture of African American students walking boldly out of Cornell University’s student union building. They…
Rocking the Boat without Capsizing
In the late 1980s, rhythm and blues group Midnight Star climbed the charts with a sensational hit called “Don’t Rock the Boat.” Have you experienced…
Fruitfulness for Others
The fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel contains rich imagery of the vine and the branches, an image that would have been obvious to those who…
Essential Acts of Leadership
Donald L. Laurie, in his book The Real Work of Leaders (Perseus, 2000), focuses on what he calls “The Seven Essential Acts of Leadership.” Leaders…
