Press release from my friends at Exponential: On the heels of Exponential ’13 in Orlando selling out and drawing 5,300 leaders on site and 40,000 to the live Exponential ’13 Webcast, Exponential has announced plans for an Exponential West 2013 this October. The conference will be hosted by Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Oct. 7-10, and like the recent Orlando event will focus on discipleship. For the last several years, Exponential has been asked to bring the annual event held in Orlando each April to the West Coast. However, Exponential leaders have been deliberately...

As we mourn the death of Dallas Willard today, here is a recent short (15 minute) word of exhortation recorded by Dallas for all pastors and church leaders:

According to Christianity Today, Dallas Willard, a prominent philosopher on a “quiet quest to subvert nominal Christianity“ (according to a 2006 CT profile), died today after losing a battle with cancer. He was 77. Not long after news broke, InterVarsity Press associate publisher Andrew T. Le Peau wrote on his blog that the University of Southern California philosophy professor will be missed for his “strong, gentle wisdom, remembering him as someone who was soaked in the presence of Christ.” Our prayers go out to the Willard...

OK… I know we don’t take our cues from foul-mouthed comedians, but Louis has some great words on patience and hard work. He is one of the most successful comedians working today, and made headlines in the past couple of years for going out on a limb and creating his own distribution system for his comedy… sidestepping production companies and the Comedy channel. But that has brought him questions like this (and surprisingly, I’ve heard this same question asked of successful church leaders): Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special, and your tour...

Thom Rainer recently did an ‘autopsy’ of a church that shut it’s doors.  Here are 11 things that he observed.  Let them be warning signs for all of us to the life cycle of churches and what we need to do to make our churches healthy: The church refused to look like the community.  The church had no community-focused ministries.   Members became more focused on memorials.  The percentage of the budget for members’ needs kept increasing. There were no evangelistic emphases. The members had more and more arguments about what they wanted. With few exceptions, pastoral tenure...

John D. Witvliet thinks so: Hymnals are especially well suited to good group singing of many kinds of songs (though not all). Hymnals are portable. Hymnals are splendid for home piano or keyboard devotional playing. Hymnals are an efficient one-stop worship planning resource. Hymnals make it relatively easy to stumble on and fall in love with good music you never thought you would like. Well-designed hymnals offer a vision of a balanced thematic diet. Hymnals help connect songs with elements of worship. Hymnals give people access to a “cultural memory bank” that many desperately want. Hymnals can...

Freedom is coming to an end as we know it… and the end times are here (or at least the book 1984 is coming true).  What do you think?

I loathe self-promotion. Hate it with a passion. So what do you do when you’re passionate about something that you think can really help a lot of people, but you don’t want to be seen as a self-promoter? I’m not sure… but that’s the boat I’m sitting in today. Last month, I told you that I’ve started a new project that I think has great potential to help you as a leader and your church’s staff and leadership. It will also save you a ton of time, keep you up-to-date with all the information you need to know as a church leader, and ultimately, I think, help...

Scott Williams suggests these 11 signs that show when someone is NOT a good leader.  Check this list against your own heart and actions today: 1.  You are not willing to fail 2. You talk way more than you listen 3. You aren’t developing and producing any other leaders to speak of 4.  You micro-manage 5.  You feel threatened by someone else on your team 6. You’re not willing to follow and learn from those you’re trying to lead 7. You’re really focused on what people think and how much they like you 8. When it comes right down to it… you really don’t genuinely care...

While Mother’s Day is a day of celebration for many women and families; the day is a sad one for others, for a number of reasons. There is a painful side of Mother’s Day as many are reminded of miscarriages and struggle to have children. Others struggle with past decisions… abortion in particular… that bring huge feelings of guilt and remorse. Some have lost their mothers within the past year.  This is the first Mother’s Day they’ll spend without mom. Some mothers have lost children.  This is an especially sad day for them. Within the church world, there is a tendency...