by Jim Kitchens | Mar 16, 2021 | Collaboration, community
When I started out as a young associate pastor, I was deeply aware of how little I knew about ministry. I wasn’t sure how to lead a congregation. I didn’t know what my relationship should be with pastors and lay leaders who had been at the work far longer than...
by Matt Cook | Mar 15, 2021 | Adapting, humility, vision
A few years ago Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) partnered with the Harvard Business School to do a study of what he calls Level 5 leaders. According to Collins, Level 5 leaders make a catalytic impact on the organizations they...
by Bill Wilson | Mar 10, 2021 | Best Practice, Changes, Risk Taking
On this one-year anniversary of the start of the Covid Pandemic, it seems appropriate to take stock and assess the American Church. For many of us, the year has been the challenge of a lifetime in ministry leadership. The obstacles and demands of dealing with the...
by Chuck Rush | Mar 10, 2021 | Changes, community, Unity
Every year we have a new group of people on the stewardship committee that are ecstatic when we tell them that 10-12% of the pledge campaign comes from families that have never pledged before. And they are crestfallen when our financial secretary informs them that...
by Barry Howard | Mar 10, 2021 | change, future, innovation, Risk Taking
While engaged in a conversation with some of my closest colleagues about the changes and challenges of pastoral ministry, Bill Wilson, Director of the Center for Healthy Churches, made a comment that summarized some thoughts that had been simmering in my mind. He...
by Jim Kitchens | Mar 10, 2021 | identity, innovation, Risk Taking, transformation
Some years ago, I spent a few days at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, one of my denomination’s most vibrant congregations. The church’s campus, prominently located on the “Miracle Mile” in the heart of downtown, makes a bold architectural statement that – at...
by Jayne Davis | Feb 23, 2021 | Changes, hope
What are the stories that give you hope? Not just stories that make you feel good for the moment, but stories that raise your expectations that the future is a good and holy place? I find myself wandering around in the book of Joshua these days, camped out on the...
by Matt Cook | Feb 22, 2021 | healthy congregation, hope, Transitions
In the 1950’s a somewhat morbid experiment was conducted by a professor at Johns Hopkins University named Curt Richter. He put wild rats in a container of water and forced them to swim as long as they could before drowning. Most of the rats swam for only a few...
by David Hull | Feb 19, 2021 | healthy congregation, healthy ministry
Researchers at Harvard University recently completed a study of the factors that lead to a healthier, longer life. Using life-style questionnaires and medical records of 123,000 volunteers, they determined that the presence of five healthy habits in a person’s life...
by Matt Cook | Jan 13, 2021 | Best Practice, healthy congregation, healthy ministry
“Religion in our time has been captured by a tourist mindset.” (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction). I love to travel. There are few things I enjoy more than picking somewhere to go, figuring out the most interesting places to experience,...
