I just had a great conversation in the doctoral seminar I’m attending at Trinity Seminary. Dr. Bill Donahue, Willow Creek’s guru on small groups is teaching the seminar. We talked about whether or not real community can happen through social media (facebook, twitter, etc). He didn’t have an answer, but here are some thoughts that

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3860015&w=425&h=350&fv=] more about “5 Ministry Killers book video“, posted with vodpod

I recommend Church Leaders Intelligence Report. It’s a great distillation of current news and leadership tips. It’s free. Outreach publishes it and here’s the link where you can get it. http://www.sermoncentral.com/clir_subscribe_capture_email.asp Here’s a sample of what you get (from the Nov. 3 edition) When Things Speed Up, Leaders Should Slow Down Leadership development consultant Brad

This morning in my quiet time I reflected over the past two Sunday services in our church. For some reason attendance was down compared to last year. The flu has hit and I’m sure that accounts for some absences. But, I’ve struggled with discouragement wondering what we could do differently to encourage people to attend.

Have you ever been prompted by God to do something, but ignored it? Recently I almost did. Cancer struck the father of my small group leader’s wife last year. He had responded well to treatment until a couple months ago when the cancer began to spread. With little hope that more treatment would help, his

This week I led our staff devotions at our staff meeting and shared a thought about one of the Apostle Paul’s experiences. That morning I had re-read 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul describes his vision of heaven and his ensuing ‘thorn in the flesh’ given him by God to protect him from conceit. I’ve read

In my last post I listed 8 evidences that I was letting my ministry get the best of me. As I’m trying to get myself back on track, here’s what I’m doing that’s helping. I’m REALLY taking a day off (Do you?) I’m reminding myself that the world (and my church) can get along just

Howard Diehl, one of the smartest guys I know who serves as a missionary in France that our church supports, commented on McLaren’s praying during Ramadan. I thought his comments to be very insightful. Hi Charles: Here is an article by McLaren on why he was doing it. http://www.brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/ramadan-2009-part-1-whats-going.html There were quite a few Christians

A couple days ago I suggested a leadership paradox leaders face: trust God or trust others? Although both Ezra and Nehemiah were both men who trusted God, each took a different route in a leadership decision. Similarly, leaders face another paradox. Do I act upon the Spirit’s promptings to make a decision or should I

Every year our staff takes an overnite retreat in September to map out plans for the next year. Our process is relatively simple. The elders determine the 2-3 broad objectives for the coming year. Then we translate these into strategies and then involve our ministry teams in developing the tactics. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?