Over my years in ministry, I’ve often said that the more I try not to offend people, the more people get offended. I don’t know if you find that true in your life, but for some reason it is in mine. I really don’t ever set out to offend anyone… but sometimes it happens. Ron Edmonson gives five practical steps to take when you’ve offended someone: 1.  Recognize it.  Some people are easily offended.  And some people can offend others easily.  Know where you are on that continuum. 2.  Pursue peace.  Try NOT to be offensive in the first place.  Try to pursue peace....

Phil Cooke lists six situations and cultures of churches that can hide bad leadership, at least for a season: 1.  Money… mistakes can be fixed and bad leadership and decisions can usually be rectified if you have deep enough pockets. 2.  Resources… like multiple assistants, a talented staff, a beautiful facility, etc.  A great staff can really mask bad leadership at the top, at least for a while. 3.  Bubble Cultures… where the church has limited interaction with the outside world, and therefore no comparisons for performance.  Cooke says this is why some external consultants can...

Interesting question posed over at Churchm.ag: As my wife and I dug into several TED videos, it hit me: “Why aren’t sermons like this?” I think it has more to do with the format than anything else, so I took a look at TED’s rules for speakers and here’s some food for thought: No talk can exceed 18 minutes in length. Speakers must tell a story or argue for an idea. They may not use the TED stage to sell products, promote themselves or businesses. Every talk’s content must be original and give credit where appropriate. Speakers cannot plagiarize or impersonate other persons, living or...

Is your team fighting? Not healthy disagreements, mind you… we’re talking red-faced, ‘I don’t like you’, ‘I’m gonna find another job’, ‘I’m gonna punch you in the throat for Jesus’ kind of fighting? Why? The Leadership Freak has some suggestions as to why this is probably the case: Incompetent leaders have teams who turn on each other. Focus: Lack of focus invites conflict. Teams who don’t know what’s important can’t focus. Leaders focus teams by showing them what’s important,now. Focus taps creativity, generates energy, and...

… at least if you let them get out of hand. Michael Nichols shares 7 things that you need to watch out for: 1. Social Media I was checking Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Buffer, my blog stats – 10 to 12 times a day wasting more than an hour a day. There’s no reason for me to check these more than once a day. Nobody cares if it takes me a few hours longer to like their witty status or comment on their latest photo. So I set aside a time every morning to process social media. And I can do this in a matter of minutes. 2. TV Yeah, you do it, too – sit down to watch one program, and it turns into 3...

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life, shares how important it is to the health of a church that pastors stick around for the long run. HT:  i4J.org

Do you ever just NOT feel creative? Then it’s time to be creative! That’s according to Seth Godin: Everybody who does creative work has figured out how to deal with their own demons to get their work done. There is no evidence that setting up your easel like Van Gogh makes you paint better. Tactics are idiosyncratic. But strategies are universal, and there are a lot of talented folks who are not succeeding the way they want to because their strategies are broken. The strategy is simple, I think. The strategy is to have a practice, and what it means to have a practice is to regularly and...

Introverts vs. extroverts. Does your church leadership team have both? Maybe you need to? Watch this: HT:  Churchm.ag

Well, that’s the title of Steven Arterburn’s newest book:  ”The Seven Minute Marriage Solution. I like Arterburn.  He usually writes solid stuff. But what’ interesting to me is that, along with the book (remember, the title is the SEVEN MINUTE marriage solution), they are also putting out a 30 day challenge. So… evidently, it will take me MORE than seven minutes to find the solution to my marriage? I did the math… and if the seven minute solution is prolonged over 30 days… it would only take me about 15 seconds a day! That’s spectacular! Actually,...

Scott Williams shares 20 things that you should stop doing right now… but first… one of my favorite videos of all time: 1. Stop placing your job above your family. 2. Stop doubting yourself. 3. Stop believing the lies. 4. Stop settling for second best. 5. Stop procrastinating. 6. Stop making excuses. 7. Stop standing paralyzed in awe of the success of others. 8. Stop tippy-toeing on that line of sin. 9. Stop being consumed with what other people think. 10. Stop waiting until tomorrow to do the things you can do today. Scott gives us ten more here. What do YOU need to stop...