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
6 Insights I learned at the 2016 Willow Creek Leadership Summit
This year our church took over 55 to attend Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit at our local video venue in London, Ontario. As usual, I came away with many great leadership insights. In this post I summarize my top 6 learnings. What I learned at this year’s Willow Creek Leadership Summit: The lens of leadership. Bill
Pastors Afflicted with Relational Anorexia
In my research for my second book, 5 Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them, I discovered that pastors are often the loneliest people in the church, second perhaps only to their wives. I learned some sobering insight from several sources. In this post I unpack the concept of relational anorexia for pastors. Here are some
Saving your Family without Killing Your Ministry
My wife and I have 3 grown kids. One has survived a brain tumor, one was a straight arrow, and one was a challenge. My oldest daughter Heather (our challenge) even co-wrote a book with me about the experience in our family called Daughters Gone Wild-Dads Gone Crazy. I’ve excerpted 5 insights from our book about
How to Overcome Spiritual Vertigo
My friend Dwayne Mercer, pastor of CrossLife Church, one of the largest churches in central Florida, just released his book Overcoming Spiritual Vertigo. He writes from the perspective of a seasoned pastor and a believer who has faced personal challenges in his life. Today he is my guest blogger. I highly recommend reading his book.
What Walmart Greeters Taught me about Leadership
Looming over six feet tall with a scraggly beard, wire-rimmed glasses, a 12 inch ponytail tied with a rubber band, and a vest dotted with military patches, George would be at home riding a Harley with a motorcycle gang. Instead, he holds a clear plastic jug plastered with yellow smiley-face stickers and filled with dollar