13 Top Quotes from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit #WLS17
Every year I attend the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at a local video venue with over 50 of our leaders. This year did not disappoint. It was probably the best Summit for my team and me. In this post I list the top 13 quotes from the speakers. If you’ve not been to a Summit,
7 Ways to Make a Graceful Exit and Leave Your Church Well
Unless you stay at the same church your entire life, you will leave one ministry or church and go to another, perhaps several times. In fact, the average pastor in the U.S. stays at one place about four years. I’ve served at six different churches in my 35 years in ministry and have always sought to leave
Has Your Emotional Brain Hijacked your Leadership?
Great ministry leaders keep their emotions in check. Unfortunately, when we don’t keep them in check, our emotional brain can hijack clear thinking and good leadership. Yet, when we understand how our brain and emotions work, such insight can help us manage them in God honoring ways. Below I give a quick summary about the part
How I Wrote a Leadership Book in 4 Months: 10 Writing Tips
I’ve written four books and my third book (People Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Approval Motivated Leadership) took me, from contract to manuscript delivery, four months. I’m working on my fifth (99% done) and my sixth (15% done). How was I able to write 60,000 words in such a short amount of time? If
5 Qualities to Look for in a Youth Pastor.
Occasionally I offer a blog by a guest blogger. Today’s post comes from my friend and youth pastor expert Jeremy Best. Jeremy has served in student ministry for many years and is one of the most knowledgable guys around on the subject. He speaks with wisdom on the qualities to look for in a youth
My Top 10 Most Read Posts in 2016
Each year I compile a list of the top 10 most read posts for 2016. Thanks for all you who follow me and read my posts. Have a great new year. My Top 10 Most Read Posts of 2016 8 Benefits of Integrity in Life and Leadership Top 10 Reasons People Don’t Tithe 5 Big Mistakes
A Fresh Perspective of the Christmas Story: through the Lens of Adoption
This is an older post that you might find helpful as you prepare for this Christmas. It is an abbreviated text of my 2009 Christmas message I gave during our annual Christmas program. Note: our entire Christmas program was written by our church’s worship leader. It follows the story of a girl named Emma who was
8 Ways to Maximize Christmas Outreach at your Church
I’m an American serving as a lead pastor at a great church in Canada after serving over 30 years in the U.S. Canada is a great place to live and minister and I’m learning how to leverage key outreach events. Christmas Eve is by far the most attended service of the year, even surpassing Easter. This year Christmas Eve
Should Andy Stanley have used Sermon Notes for His “The Bible Told Me So, Not” Sermon
In August, Andy Stanley delivered a sermon that has upset many because he appeared to question biblical authority. You can hear his message, “Who Needs God? The Bible Told Me So,” here, read a negative critique by Albert Mohler here and read a positive one by Frank Turek here. In this post I’m not critiquing whether or not he undermined biblical authority. I
iPad Preaching with a Virtual Whiteboard, what I Learned
In my teaching on Sunday mornings in my church I occasional use a tool that turns my iPad into a virtual whiteboard. I use an app called Airsketch which allows me to connect my iPad to our church’s local wi-fi network which in turn allows the computer which drives our projector to put the image of my iPad on the screen. It’s a
