by Phill Martin | Mar 31, 2020 | Self-Care
As a church staff leader, are you in information and support options overload? These opportunities are coming to us quickly and with ever-changing details. New laws, technology, challenges, upset schedules, and unknown answers. I know I’m in overload, perhaps...
by Matt Cook | Mar 25, 2020 | future
I still remember the moment I first saw the spaghetti models for Hurricane Florence heading right for us. I’m not a native North Carolinian and most of the folks who’d grown up on the coast told me not worry too much until it was a lot closer, but...
by Bill Wilson | Mar 18, 2020 | future
The coronavirus crisis has taken us off the rails we thought were permanent and dependable. Congregations are facing a future that we have no precedent for or roadmap to navigate. There is a sense of disorientation, fear and bewilderment among leaders and judicatories...
by Bill Owen | Mar 17, 2020 | spiritual discernment, Uncategorized
There’s no denying the stress in recent days surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. The reaction has been fast and fluid—the Dow Jones dropping some 4,000 points in two days, the NCAA conference tournaments and March Madness cancelling, along with the NBA, MLS, university...
by Jim Kitchens | Mar 10, 2020 | declining congregation, future
One of the projects I’m working on these days is to help three presbyteries in the Mountain West think about their future. All three are experiencing the decline with which most American churches wrestle. All three been helping churches...
by Joel Snider | Mar 3, 2020 | strategic planning
The coronavirus has replaced politics as the headline news during the past week. The stock market had a record week of losses while individuals who had hoarded surgical masks and gloves have made questionable profits on eBay. Personal...
by David Hull | Feb 25, 2020 | future, healthy ministry
I am reading a wonderful book by James and Deborah Fallows called Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America. Over a five-year period, James and Deb traveled throughout America flying a single-engine prop plane. The purpose of their trip was...
by Matt Cook | Feb 20, 2020 | humility
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 Doug Haney | Feb 18, 2020 | Music
A Wilshire church member walked up to me after worship recently and said: “That’s two weeks in a row. Sanctuary Choir is singing so well!” I said, “Well I’m glad our batting average is getting better,” and we both chuckled. That morning as part of a deacon...
by Joel Snider | Feb 11, 2020 | leadership
A church leader in another community told me about his former pastor, who had taken an assessment of his leadership style. The results showed that this pastor was the rarest type in the assessment’s scale. He was among five percent of leaders classified as...
