My Tuesday morning men’s group has been walking through the book of Nehemiah of late.  The history buff in me loves to hear the story and the leadership geek in me is awed by Nehemiah’s skill.  Last week, while walking through chapter three a short phrase in verse five caught my eye, and has stuck with me all week: 5And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. [...]

Fifteen years ago my life was a whole lot different.  Finishing my Doolie year at the Air Force Academy, the path that I had chosen for my life is vastly different from the one that God has taken me down.  While my time at the Academy came to an unplanned end shortly after the conclusion of my freshman year, each year at this time I can not help but reflect on my brief time there, [...]

I spend a good bit of my time working with church planters.  At the end of my first phone call with a planter I ask them all to do the same thing: put me on their email list.  I do this because I am geeky about church plants, and love to watch what happens with them.  I enjoy getting updates on how God is moving in a church and praying for their struggles.  I greatly [...]

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at habits, attitudes, and behaviors that cause a team to fail.  We have called these Team Killers, and today I want to walk through the most ironic killer on the list: lack of listening. One of the things that I have found through the years is that even though church leaders are expected to act as counselors, confidantes, and provide wisdom to our congregations, we are [...]

I am a fan of Seth Godin. I greatly enjoy the way that he thinks and I believe he has a pretty good handle on the way that our culture is changing.  While Godin is not the first name that typically comes to mind when it comes to books on leading in the church, I am convinced that he has some great words that those of us in church leadership need to hear.   Poke the [...]

May 21 has come and gone with no rapture. I spent the last few days listening to my fair share of R.E.M. and creating witty one-liners and end of the world jokes.  My snarkiness was cranked up to eleven, until I read a story that made me realize a few things that I forgot along the way: Robert Fitzpatrick of New York had put his money where his faith is: The 60-year-old retiree spent $140,000 [...]

Earlier this week I on Jeff Brooks’s blog I read a post entitled “Act like a church for better fundraising“.  The article is a riff off of a post at Get Off The Couch about what non-profits can learn from the church.  As I read these I am reminded of the Starbucks concept of a third place, and how that idea is straight from the church: a place of community and being together.  To be [...]

I have been doing a great deal of traveling of late.  While I miss being with Theresa, I do enjoy meeting people and learning about new places.  One of the best parts of my job is getting to meet church planters and church leaders all over the place and hear what God is doing through them and the ministries that God has entrusted to them.  There are few things as exciting for me than to [...]

A few weeks back we started talking about the things that will kill a church leadership team.  We first spoke about the idea of over-functioning, and how that can be disastrous.  Today I want to talk a little bit about the idea of mind reading or, to put it in more biblical terms, the idea of bearing false witness against a teammate. Why is this so harmful to your team?  Two weeks ago I was at a [...]

Yesterday I shared a little bit about my hesitations in writing this post.  If you have not read that, it might be a good idea for you to do that first… go ahead, I will wait.  So, what did I think about Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived?  There is no simple answer to that question, but let me frame my thoughts by talking a [...]