Serving on a church staff is not for the faint-hearted. It takes courage and strength to lead in the church. Andy Stanley spoke about pastors and courage in Preaching Magazine. Here’s what Andy wrote: “Speaking from my limited view, I feel like so much of the problem with pastors is they are just scared to death. They’re scared of their people, they’re scared of deacons, they’re scared, they’re scared, they’re scared. You know, if you’re scared of someone you can’t lead them; you can hardly even influence them. Here’s the pastor who’s...

I read an interesting article this week by Ruby Curran discussing different types of bosses. I think what Ruby has to say also fits well for different type of pastors. The ideal pastor inspires their people to achieve and produce exceptional results for the Kingdom every day. Sometimes when we look at the don’ts, the do’s become more obvious. Here are some highlights from this article, which I’ve re-written somewhat, specifically for pastors… Take an open, honest look at these four less-than-ideal types of pastors and you may find ways to begin to become the pastor you’d...

Yet there are ways to tell that a person’s faith has drifted into fanaticism if you know what to look and listen for, say scholars who have studied some of history’s most horrific cases of religious violence. Matt Steen and I discuss.  There is something to learn here for all of us: Thoughts? Todd

Most of the problems you face today are probably ‘first world’ church problems. 1.  You got locked out of your Fellowship One account. 2.  Your main video projector’s bulb just blew out. 3.  The pizza delivery guy is five minutes late bringing lunch for your staff meeting. 4.  The air conditioner in the worship center quit working. 5.  The church softball team has lost five games in a row. 6.  Craig Groeschel won’t return your call. 7.  For some reason, Planning Center won’t work on your iPhone. 8.  The flight for your missions trip to Haiti is now 45 minutes...

At start-up tech company Nara, you won’t find employees sending an email to someone else in the office. It’s against the rules. Instead, employees are encouraged to physically get up and talk to the person directly. According to an article in Fast Company, this rule isn’t just a gimmick to get people to interact, it is based on science and how the brain responds to various stimulations. It seems that physical movements actually keep the brain alert and creative. But CEO Tom Copeman also gives another reason for the policy: “I really have this philosophy that if you can’t say...

Fascinating infographic on how our younger generation communicates.  Take note people… this is the church or tomorrow.  Change or...

Wow.  A free eBook from Wayne Cordeiro (one of my favs). It happened early on. It was an intentional choice, says New Hope Christian Fellowship Founder/Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. He had to decide whether to build a big church or big people. He chose big people. So for the first 15 years, Cordeiro led his church to plant more than 70 churches. Another intentional decision early on, Cordeiro says, was whether he would be a Kingdom builder or an empire builder. I chose the former, he shares. It was the more expensive road to take. But we made that choice in the first five years of our church plant, and from...

I received an email from a friend passing on an old article written by Eugene Peterson. This first appeared almost fifteen years ago in Leadership Journal, but its insight and advice is great for a day just like today. Peterson writes… Being a pastor who satisfies a congregation is one of the easiest jobs on the face of the earth—if we are satisfied with satisfying congregations. The hours are good, the pay is adequate, the prestige considerable. Why don’t we find it easy? Why aren’t we content with it?Because we set out to do something quite different. We set out to risk our lives...

When the alarm goes off on Sunday morning, what is your attitude? A sense of excitement or a sense of foreboding? I came across a very honest, interesting and thought provoking article by Doug Tappan that was originally published at RelevantMagazine.com. Please take a couple minutes today to read this… I think it will hit a nerve and challenge you as you start your week. Doug writes: I’ve decided I don’t like going to church. It’s not that I’m going to stop going. But I came to the conclusion last Sunday, as I was showering before church, that I’ve come to the point where I just...

Sometimes I scratch my head at all the things that are going on in the church today. Some church leaders are delusional.  Some are plain out living a lie.  And some are living a double life. It makes me so angry when I hear stories of sexual immorality and general unscrupulousness of some church leaders. And it’s easy to think that things are much worse today than ever. But you know what?  They’re not. Sin has always played a starring role in the lives of some church leaders.  I mean you can go back as far as the old testament to see that. But today, I just want to go back to...