You can have the best vision in the world, but without great execution, you’ll get sidetracked.  Every time. Will Mancini has some great thoughts on how NOT to get sidetracked.  He shares 6 common mistakes on implementation and execution that you may want to consider: #1 Spinning Wheel Decision-making. Sometimes a team can have a great vision process only to get bogged down in complex or ineffective decision-making after the fact. On a car ride of a thousand miles, the spark plugs fire a thousands times each mile. If the little steps to make the vision happen don’t fire, you’ll only putter...

Well… let’s try this again… yesterday I posted what I thought was a link to Rick Warren’s year-end message to pastors… except I forgot to include the link.  So much for my new year’s resolution. Here are some year-end points from Rick, then I’ll try (again) to link to the video.  You can catch more at Pastors.com, of course: As pastors we live with the constant tension between the ideal (our dream for our church) and the real (how things actually are). Here are 10 key Looking forward to 2012 points that would be good to remember this coming year...

Will Mancini writes: I was recently dialoguing with a very successful pastor about the ten-year vision horizon of the large church he pastors. He made a striking comment. “I don’t want to coast on original vision.” It made me wonder, how do you know if you might be coasting on a vision that “used to be?” You use adjectives that position the vision as historical: original, founding, previous, last season, former chapter, etc. You have increasing realization of how far you God has taken your ministry in the last five or ten years. You actually feel less excited about a...

Greg Atkinson wrote something that caught my eye this morning.  What do you think? Yes, there are some people that quickly pick up on the lack of vision and leave the church to find another more vibrant church, but how many people keep coming back week after week secretly hoping things will get better? Hoping and praying that the pastor will get a word from God, lead with passion, conviction and purpose. I wonder how many gifted, capable, passionate lay leaders are sitting untapped in congregations around the country. I wonder. via Greg Atkinson. What do you think? Share Sign up for our Weekly...

Jimmy Smuda writes:  I just got back from one of those staff retreats that make you feel you can really do something with the team that’s around you. For some (including me who is not a big “meetings” guy, but is growing into that role) it can be grueling. 11 hours of hashing, rehashing, coming full circle back to the original….hash! It can be absolutely exhausting. Especially if you’re in a room where you feel almost everyone thinks different then you do. See when you’re talking business, you WANT that. Different types of thinking. Churches are on a kick of...