How to Increase the Spiritual Return on a Sermon
Every Sunday something happens over 400,000 times in North America: A pastor preaches a sermon. Have you ever wondered, though, how much impact sermons really make? Consider these shocking statistics. If an average sermon lasts about 30 minutes and if roughly 56 million people attend on an average Sunday, then church attenders in North America’s churches
10 Signs a Leader May Need a New Challenge
One of my favorite writers is Liz Wiseman. She has spoken at the Willow Creek Summit a couple of times. She has authored these two great books that I love… Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work. In one chapter of Rookie Smarts
Rejection: How if Affects Leaders
Disapproval and rejection can sting and wound. We’ve all felt it. What do we do when important people in our lives (or even those that we don’t deem important) reject us? How do we respond as did Jesus when he was rejected and scorned? In this post I unpack this painful thing called rejection. Years
The 7 C’s of Great Ministry Leaders
I recently read a great article by Brad Powell on the 7 C’s of great ministry leaders. I’ve heard of the three C’s before, but his 7 captured the essence of great leaders. Here are his 7 C’s. Calling: we must have a sense of God’s call where we currently serve Character: perhaps the most important,
Not Motivated? Try a Simple Pleasure.
Every day we need something called motivation to accomplish what we need to do that day. Some tasks come with built-in motivation. I don’t need much motivation to eat thin-crust Canadian bacon pizza or watch the reality show ALONE (I admit I’m hooked). But many tasks feel daunting and don’t look enticing, like doing your
What NOT to Say to Someone in Pain
Several years ago at a physical therapy appointment I was getting some kinks worked out of my back. As the therapist torqued my left leg into a pretzel, she told me about a friend who recently got news about a life threatening medical condition. As my therapist shared, she felt unsure about what to say to her friend
Is this Leadership’s Missing Ingredient? (hint: neuroleadership)
Whether we lead a church ministry, a para-church organization, or run a business, Christian leaders want to lead at our best. Books, leadership seminars, coaching, and mentoring can all help us grow our skills. I’ve used all three to develop mine. Recently, though, I’ve realized an emerging and rapidly growing field is filling a gap
4 Insights about Leadership I Learned from a Bunch of Creatives
My vocational call is a pastor. But I also write books. I’ve written six with a seventh coming this fall (intersects Jesus’ teaching principles with the neuroscience of teaching). To improve my writing, a few years ago was a part of a coaching group led by a really smart book marketer, Chad Cannon. I also attended an
Gratitude: Why every Leader Needs it
Gratitude: do leaders need it? I’m sitting in a restaurant as I write this blog (this happened a few years ago) and am stirred by two people I notice. One is an elderly gentleman who sits across from his wife. As he grips his coffee cup, his hands shake as fast as a drummer’s
Pastors Who Lack Close Friends: 5 Reasons Why
Barna Research discovered that 61% of pastors are lonely and have few close friends. The loneliest people in churches are often pastors. Why is this so? The experts say that five key factors inhibit pastors from developing close friendships. lack of formative modeling: in families of origin some weren’t close to their parents and/or their parents never modeling for
