So That: Two Powerful Words for Mission Results
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says that churches often invest a great deal of energy in activities without ever asking how they relate to what God…
Browsing: Lessons for Leaders
Articles
Does Your Church Have Barking Dogs?
Lee Kricher, pastor of Amplify Church in Pittsburgh, says every church has things that distract members and visitors from the church’s mission. He writes that…
Leading Between Memory and Vision
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., explains that God’s leaders always live in the tension between memory of the past and hope for the future. Effective leaders draw…
Good Leaders Still Face Problems — Just Different Ones
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., writes that effective leaders are never free from problems. In fact, as they make progress, they are likely to confront more…
Leaders Know Themselves
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., discusses the importance of leaders having a mature, self-aware understanding of themselves. He writes that in order to achieve a healthy…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
Quiet Leadership by Public Leaders
Dale Bumpers was a very public leader for most of his adult life — as governor of Arkansas for two terms and then United States…
Is Your Church Driven by a Shadow Mission?
Some congregations adopt purpose statements that are widely known and frequently repeated, such as “Connected with God, Growing in Faith, Serving with Love,” or “Honoring…
Trust is Results Driven
There is nothing more corrosive to the life of a congregation than an underlying absence of trust that may manifest itself as congregants not having…
Right Questions for Church Leaders
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions. These two sentences introduce “The Right Question,” one of the most popular features in…
Learn from the Stupid Things You Do
It was a stupid thing to do. Returning to my hotel room at the end of the first day of a conference, I could not…
Leadership Lived: Clementa Pinckney and Open Doors
As soon as I saw the television images of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston on the early morning news, my heart…
The Failure-Tolerant Leader
In tennis, players usually give their maximum effort on the first serve, knowing that if they fault on that one, they will have another opportunity.…
Assertive and Humble Leadership
Columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr., reported on Senator Chris Coons of Delaware speaking to the Secular Coalition of America (“A Senator’s Faith — and Humility,”…
Commencement Season Lessons for All Leaders
Next Monday is Commencement for Wesley Theological Seminary of which the Lewis Center for Church Leadership is an integral part. Commencements are happy and glorious…
Your Leadership Attitude is Contagious
A co-worker arrived at the door of my office waving an angry email from one of our most talented adult education teachers. The teacher was…
Baseball and the Simplicity of Leadership
The new baseball season is upon us, and hope emerges anew in major league cities across the country. Baseball fans and some who had paid…
Look for Options, Not Solutions
Leaders are constantly faced with problems. They engage such challenges with energy because they know that these issues represent what stands between their current reality…
Leaders Learn from Their Failures
The Super Bowl in January had the highest viewing audience ever — a record of over 114 million. Those who attended the first Super Bowl…
Could Your Church Have Developed WD-40®?
The church today requires innovation, not improvement. Making things better through improvements is always welcomed, but we are past the time when merely improving what…
Pay Attention to People Who Stay
Mobility has been an historic characteristic of people in the United States. Mobility, opportunity and adventure have tended to go together. There was the massive…
The Emergence of “Dones”
A friend alerted me to a blog by Thom Schultz, founder of Group Publishing, on “The Rise of the Dones.” At first I thought there…
Celebrate to Build Your Church’s God-Esteem
Dying churches are often churches with low self-esteem. Your task as a leader is not to build up the church’s self-esteem but to build up…
High Yield: Seven Disciplines of the Fruitful Leader
Whether by training or intuition, fruitful leaders develop a set of practices that serve them well and bear much fruit. These practices often become second…
Remember That We Are Working in Sand
Each summer my family spends a week at the beach. And every year my daughters, their friends, and I build a sand castle. We’ve discovered…
Five Leadership Insights I Wish I Knew 25 Years Ago
This summer marked 34 years in ministry for me. Although I appreciate what I learned in seminary, I have learned from experience five key lessons…