I’m happy to share our newest online event at Leadership Network.  It’s called Church Innovate, and it features leaders from the front line of ministry in three innovation areas:  generosity, leadership development, and multisite. We’re excited to share with you what we’re learning as we assemble some of the best and brightest leaders from churches all across the US and Canada.  I hope you’ll join us on May 14… it’s free! Register now… it’s...

Here’s the theory: On any given day, assume that you can only accomplish one big thing, three medium things, and five small things, and narrow down your to-do list to those nine items. It’s called the 1-3-5 rule. So… essentially, you pick 1 BIG task; 3 MEDIUM tasks; and 5 LITTLE tasks to accomplish today. Finish up those, and then call it a day. What do you think? Is this possible? Have you tried a similar system? I think I will try it. Because I go from dawn until dusk, constantly working on things, and never feeling like I’m done. This may be a good line in the sand for...

Michael Lukaszewski writes: Vision is a powerful word in the church world.  Pastors love to talk about it. But here’s a secret. People don’t want to hear about the vision of your church, they want to hear about themselves. That’s right.  People love to talk about themselves.  Their dreams, their accomplishments, their problems.   And they like to listen to messages that address those things. So while the three year plan of your church might be interesting to you, people might not care about it if they don’t see themselves IN it.  While your vision statement and core values might be...

Interesting article by Gregory Ciotti over at 99u.com today. Ciotti names five ‘creativity killers’.  These will kill your church and ministry creativity.  And in some cases, if you slosh around in these too long, they may cost you your job.  Here they are: 1.  Role Mismatch Are you in the wrong role?  Ciotti quotes Einstein: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Do you find the work your doing to be outside of your area of expertise.  Of course, there are all parts of our...

Today marks the release of the May edition of Ministry Briefing. This month’s edition covers approximately 175 articles, studies, news stories, and blog posts that we think are helpful for church leaders to read. In honor of today’s release, we thought we would share some of our favorite stories from this month’s edition of Ministry Briefing: Game Show Network’s new show could put old church ladies out of business. “It Takes a Church” looks to celebrate the awkward tradition of married churchgoers matching up their single friends with their future mate. Teens watching...

Ever been in a position as a church leader when it was time to stop talking and make a decision? Sometimes I think we talk TOO much instead of making decisions in the church.  After all, we think it would be great if we had everyone on our side before the decision was made.  We’re afraid of making people mad; we’re afraid of conflict; and yes, we’re afraid people who don’t get their way will (can I say it?), leave. Andy Stanley has a great example of leadership: When we started North Point Community Church, our leadership team suggested that our adult education be built around...

Steve Case shares “The Ten Most Powerful People in Your Church” in an article he wrote over at Youth Specialties.  See if any of this holds true in your church… 1. The Church Secretary Easily the most powerful person in the building. Meetings can disappear. Set-ups can get lost. As in war, the one who controls the information controls the public opinion. 2. The Senior Pastor The perception is more important than the reality. If there’s a problem with anything in the church (other than the senior pastor) the senior pastor is where people go to complain. The SP is perceived (and...

Bruce Johnson has an interesting post on one of the biggest mistakes he thinks a pastor can make.  Bruce writes: So what is the number one mistake that most preachers and communicators make?  They don’t hook their congregation/audience. Now, don’t rush past that comment.  I just said something incredibly profound that could change the impact of your preaching/communicating forever (and all of the changed lives that go with it)!  In other words, most preachers/communicators tend to assume that people want to listen to them.  So they just dig in to their (catch the pronoun) material. ...

Ever feel totally brain-dead? Tired. Frustrated. Incapable of making a decision? In his book, “Practicing Greatness,” Reggie McNeal describes three “brain killers” that deserve special attention for each and every pastor and church leader: 1. Negative people. Leaders need to be aware that when they allow themselves to be consumed by negative people (who seem so often inclined to seek them out), they allow precious mental, emotional, and spiritual energy to be drained off from other leadership pursuits. Obviously, leaders cannot totally avoid negative people, but they can...

There is a lot of talk about the ‘missional church’ these days and the change needed in pastoral leadership to have effective churches in today’s culture.  In their book “The Missional Leader:  Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World,”  Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk say that pastoral leadership must constantly change in order to be effective leadership for the missional church.  As a matter of fact, they go as far as to say that because of all the change in our culture, many of the classical pastoral skills taught in today’s seminaries are...