What if we put aside our banners that identified us as Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, or Anglican?  What if we stopped trying to add numbers to our “tribe” and instead started working towards adding to the Kingdom… regardless of what banner people pick up after joining? I love the way that Keller thinks through things… what do you think? Tim Keller Argues For Churches In Cities [Lausanne] from Kenny Jahng on Vimeo.

Seth Godin’s blog from Tuesday has had me thinking: How media changes politics If you want to get elected in the US, you need media. When TV was king, the secret to media was money. If you have money, you can reach the masses. The best way to get money is to make powerful interests happy, so they’ll give you money you can use to reach the masses and get re-elected. Now, though…When attention is [...]

The internet is funny.  As I was plowing through my morning reading I came across an article called The Art of Smiling.  I will save you the time of reading the article: the author suggests that there is no art to smiling, you just do it.  I have been mulling over the article all morning because I think that we sometimes can overlook what a smile communicates. A genuine eye-crinkling smile can do more to [...]

I saw this video over at Jeff Brook’s blog.  We have all been on websites that have driven us crazy by giving us information that we do not care about.  In this day and age the people are looking at your church’s website long before they step foot in the front door of your church. What does your church’s website say? Is it easy for visitors to find the information that they want (as opposed [...]

Jeff Brooks writes a lot of good, quick hitting stuff about fundraising for non-profits.  I have enjoyed following his blog for the last several months and while it is primarily about raising funds for the secular non-profit world, much of what he writes is appropriate for the church world as well.  A few weeks back, he asked readers “Do you believe in your cause?” The entry talks about organizations who have a give first rule [...]

Bob Thune has two great posts on elders and church plants over at The Resurgance Blog.  Bob brings up something that many times is glossed over when planning out how to begin a church: when and who to install as elders and what to do about accountability when you don’t have elders in place. Church planting can be a lonely place, you spend a great deal of time working to start something from scratch based [...]

A while back I was having lunch with a group of pastors who served in churches from the local area.  Over the course of lunch thetypical small talk happened and I found myself asking different pastors to tell me about the neighborhoods that where they served.  I walked away from the lunch surprised and disappointed by the fact that of the six or so pastors that I asked, only one could speak intelligently about the neighborhood [...]

Think back to some of the great leaders that you have worked with through the years.  Think of names, think of faces, think ofpersonalities.  What made them great?  How were they similar? Tony Schwartz recently blogged for Fast Company on what makes great leaders similar.  Schwartz boiled it down to four capacities that a great leader has that most are lacking: Rather than simply trying to get more out of us, great leaders seek to [...]

John Butler recently wrote an article for Church Executive Magazine that runs through how the health care changes that are currently in process could affect the local church.  In the article he lists a few things that may affect how your church handles staff health care: No lifetime or annual cover age limits Extension of dependent cover age up to age 26 Coverage for preventive health services without any cost-sharing requirements Mandated specific patient protections [...]

Greg Stier asks a hard question about your church and it’s mission statement over on The Christian Post site.  Greg looks at how so many church vision or mission statements talk about evangelism as a priority… but so few actually follow up on it. Greg suggests a few questions to ask about your church when it comes to placing a priority on evangelism: Have you been equipped by your church to effectively share your faith [...]