Mashed Potatoes, Pride, and God’s Eyes

First impressions often stymie how God wants us to perceive others. Recently we vacationed in Mississippi to visit my wife’s dad and sister. Our visits there have become quite routine. Each day I get up, run, take a shower, go to a buffet, take a nap, watch TV, go to bed, and then the next

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Titherosity: Motivating others to Become More Generous

Every Every pastor must deal with the money issue in his or her church. I stumbled upon a simple way that inspired our church to give more generously than it ever did. Two years ago in January our offerings were tanking. For some reason January giving seems to always drop. My unscientific analysis tells me

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Mac and Cheese & Paying Attention to Others’ Needs

A very successful businessman inadvertently taught me a lesson about paying attention to other people’s needs … with macaroni and cheese. Recently I ate breakfast at my favorite diner with one of our church’s key leaders. He owns a flourishing business and gives quite generously to our church. As I enjoyed the blue plate special of

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Is too much Knowledge Hindering your Evangelism?

A simple game devised by a Ph.D. at Stanford in 1990 has bearing on how effective we communicate the Gospel. I just finished the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I highly recommend it. They refer to a study where assigned people were given one of two rolls: a ‘tapper’ or a

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Making the Most of the Next 10 years: A Simple Self-Evaluation

H. B. London, VP of Pastoral Ministries for Focus on the Family sends out a weekly email to pastoral leadership. It’s quite good. He gave me permission to post an article from the Jan. 8 edition. Call them ‘new year’s resolutions’ if you like, but what he said made me think as I enter into

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The 10 Most Important Questions You’ll ever Ask Yourself

Donald Whitney, a pastor and seminary professor, gave me permission to re-print this article. It is outstanding. Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things

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How I do Staff Evaluations

I use this form when I perform an annual staff evaluation. I have every staff person complete the form on themselves and attach their goals for the previous and upcoming year.  These documents provide the talking points for the eval. Afterwards, I compile a one page written evaluation I give to them. Staff Self-Evaluation/Annual Review

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How to be a Secure Leader

This is a great post from Jeff Iorg, the president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He gave me permission to re-post. July 27, 2009 – Finding Security for Leadership An important character quality for any leader who wants to make a significant impact and leave a positive legacy is security. Yet, security is seldom

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Does Increased Church Attendance at Christmas Increase Conversions?

As a pastor, Christmas and Easter tends to pump up my adrenalin because so many new people attend. Our church averages around 1100 each Sunday and when these holidays come, our attendance more than doubles during our special holiday weekend services and performances This year our worship leader wrote a production that interwove themes of

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The Ultimate Photo of Political Correctness

Recently I was in a public school building and walked by a nicely decorated bulletin board nestled between student lockers. My eyes scanned it and something subconsciously struck me that caused me to stop, turn around, and look again. There is was, ranked right up with (or down with) National Cookie Day … the date

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