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Transition Plan: 7 Secrets Every Leader Needs to Know
You’ve trained for months. Three workouts a day. Wind sprints. Long distance. Weight training. Your speed and endurance are the best they’ll ever be. You’re at your peak, about to run the race of your life. And everything you’ve worked so hard for comes down to a few seconds on a track. The gun fires, and you fly faster than ever before. Your heart pounds. You sense that you’re breaking records with each step. But at the final turn, the unthinkable happens. Right as you’re extending the baton to the next runner, it somehow falls...
read morePat Robertson on Time
I have to admit… I’ve never really though of it quite like this… Thanks, Pat.
read moreChurches Leave Association over Woman Pastor Issue
According to the Christian Post, several North Carolina churches have cut their ties with Surry Baptist Association over the group’s decision to expel a church for having a female pastor. First Baptist Church of Mount Airy voted overwhelmingly to withdraw from the association due to the expulsion of nearby Flat Rock Baptist Church for appointing the Rev. Bailey Edwards Nelson as senior pastor. Piney Grove Baptist Church of Mount Airy also decided to leave the association, with an unanimous vote taken last week. “In our congregation, and in...
read moreThe Rick Warren Porte Cochère
As part of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s celebration of its new chapel, the Rick Warren Porte Cochère was dedicated, Dec. 1. The covered drive-thru entrance on the east side of the chapel was named in honor of Southwestern alumnus Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Funds were provided by members of Warren’s church. The entrance highlights the five purposes of the church as well as the PEACE plan, which Warren created to address global concerns with spiritual emptiness, poverty, disease, and...
read moreSearch Committees Unite!
Search committees in churches are notoriously bad at communicating to candidates… at least that’s what I heard time and time again when I ran a church staffing website. Thom Rainer has put together a great list of suggestions your search committee should consider: – Understand the potential disruption caused by your contact of a pastor. Most pastors at least pause and pray when they hear from another church. They often include their spouses in the early discussion. They may wonder if the contact is indicative that God may...
read moreSBC Impressions
The majority of Americans have a favorable impression of Southern Baptists, according to a recent LifeWay Research study. However, 40 percent of respondents have an unfavorable view of the denomination, more than a third strongly assume an SBC church is not for them, and the negativity is higher among the unchurched. The study was conducted in September 2011 after the president of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed a task force to consider a possible name change for the 166 year-old convention. The study indicates a segment of Americans...
read moreInterracial Marriage Ban Dropped
According to CNN, two weeks ago, Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky, voted 9-6 to ban couples in interracial marriages from attending or participating in the church. But on Sunday, the small church reversed its course. Pastor Stacy Stepp told CNN affiliate WLEX on Sunday that the church voted unanimously to “accept all people regardless of race, creed, or color and to accept everyone into the fellowship of Christ.” “I tried everything in my power to try to resolve the matter before it got to where it...
read moreMultisite? Really?
Jim Tomberlin answers the question: what are the characteristics of a church that is on its way to becoming a true multi-site church? Here are some of the traits that I have observed among churches that seem to have made the shift from single-site to a multi-site paradigm: 1. Four or more geographical campuses. 2. A dedicated multisite champion on the senior team. 3. At least 50% of total church attendance beyond the original campus. 4. A teaching team that fully or partially utilizes video delivery. 5. Dedicated central staff...
read more2012: The end of the world
I had no idea that Denver was such an important part in the end of the world. Watch this entertaining look at how one internet ‘prophet’ thinks the world may end… people of Denver be warned. Warning that the content here is a little graphic at times: The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video...
read moreUpside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our World
Many Christians have an impending sense of doom about our country and the world. But are their fears based on reality or myth? In this book Wright examines issues of concern to Christians, including poverty, sickness, sexual morality, the environment, and the global church. Did you know that global poverty has been cut in half over the last several decades? That infant deaths have decreased dramatically in recent years? That Christianity is a growing and influential force in Asia and Africa? Maybe the world isn’t in a downward spiral...
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