A Pastor’s Annual Vision Sermon: an exercise in futility?
I’ve served in a senior pastor role over 20 years and each year I’ve preached an annual vision sermon. As I look back, though, I wonder how much Kingdom difference those sermons really made. Pastors from large mega-churches that I’ve followed from afar encourage us to bring an annual message. As a result, I’ve prioritized
5 Really Bad Ways Pastors React when People Compare Them to more Successful Churches
This week I’m posting a series of blogs about how pastors respond when people in their church compare their leadership and preaching to others or when they brag about another church by insinuating that we don’t measure up Yesterday I posted 5 ways we should respond when we feel compared to others more ‘successful’ than
When Pastors don’t Measure Up to Others’ Expectations
Yesterday I began a series of blogs to unpack this issue: what should pastors do when people in our churches compare us to other more “successful” pastors. In that blog, I shared an email a pastor received from someone in his church who boasted about another super-successful pastor and his church. He was tempted to
8 Mistakes I’ve Made when Hiring Church Staff
I’ve hired several pastors and admin staff in my ministry of 30 plus years and I’ve made some great choices and some not so great ones as well. These mistakes have contributed to my poor selections. Not pursuing the yellow flags that nagged at the back of my mind. Refusing to REALLY ask other key
Interactive Preaching with the iPad
I’ve posted a few blogs about my journey using the iPad to preach (see related posts below). Thus far I’ve loved using it. I own the original iPad and I’m waiting to upgrade until next year’s version releases. Here’s my current sermon prep and delivery process. Write sermons on a Word doc on my Airbook.
Can Vacations for Pastors Stifle Ministry?
I’m reading David Platt’s book, Radical, along with the guys in my two men’s groups. I just returned from a vacation to the beach. And, I’m feeling conflicted about the effects of my vacation on my spiritual and ministry life. A pastor I served under at two churches captured the biblical concept of rest in
3 Reasons Why Church Leaders should take Solo Retreats
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22391630[/vimeo]
Spontaneous Baptisms
We have baptism coming up and include spontaneous baptisms as a part of our planned baptisms. To take the fear edge off, we produce a humorous video for those considering. Here’s our latest. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/20351065[/vimeo]
How an iPad improved my Preaching
I’m convinced God gave me a ‘Geek’ gene. From my monopoly on science fair first prizes in high school to my toy tank that fires bb’s to my radio-controlled helicopter that shoots plastic missiles, I love any gadget that runs on electricity. I’m also among an elite 50,000 who bought the very first Macintosh in
Why Pastors are Like Turtles
This year, Leadership Network asked about 50 seasoned leaders to share via a short 6 minute video what they had learned from ministry. Such leaders as Wayne Cordeiro, Chip Ingram, David Loveless, Gene Getz, and Carl George gave talks. I was asked to be one of the presenters. I entitled my talk, Why Pastors are