The last seven days have found me in such exotic climes as Wilmington, Baltimore, and Columbia, Maryland (I know you are jealous).  Here is some of what has gone on here on Church Thought, and the #3at3. The week that was: Goal Setting and Accountability.  An update on my 2012 goals and a little conversation about what makes goals realistic. What Planting a Church Taught me.  I have been putting off launching into this story for about [...]

Two weeks ago Jon shared his thoughts on how churches use their vision and financial situations in their decision making processes.  Since that time I have been soaking a good bit his thoughts, and I have had a bunch of conversations that bring me back to a lot of what he shared. Over these last two weeks I feel like I have had more conversations than normal about church finances which involve the phrases “but [...]

On Tuesday I started a series sharing some of what I learned while planting a church.  My top secret plan in all this is to turn the comments section of these posts into a powerful resource for planters, and potential planters… so please, share your wisdom, insight, and experiences and let’s walk through this together. I don’t know that I have met a church planter who believes that they were fully prepared for what they [...]

Yesterday afternoon I went to the local pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  Being the beginning of the year, and all the changes in health insurance, it was a little hectic, and communication between the pharmacists and the counter staff were a little strained.  While searching for my prescription there was a little bit of heated dialogue between the two groups, and no one seemed to know where my items were.  I was told by a lady [...]

Many of you know that I helped to plant a church in Baltimore called The Garden Community.  Planting a church was an incredible roller coaster ride, teaching me about dependence on God, effective leadership, how to care well for people of different backgrounds, and my own spiritual condition.  A friend of mine once told me that everyone should start a church at least once in their lives.  While I may not fully buy into that [...]

About a month ago I shared a little bit about what I am expecting to achieve in 2012.  As we have heard time and time again goals need to be shared, and monitored… or they have no chance of being realized.  With this in mind, I am planning (another goal?) to do a monthly update on where I stand on these three simple goals, and where I am headed.  My assumption is that some months [...]

I have been thinking for a while of doing a weekly summary of what has gone on here during the week that was.  My thought is to do a simple summary of the preceding week’s five posts, plus share the three most popular items shared on the 3 at 3: 3 items, shared at 3:00 pm every weekday that church leaders ought to see.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this is a [...]

While planting a church in Baltimore I had a love-hate relationship with partnership development (a friendlier sounding way of saying fundraising).  The truth is that fundraising for a church plant can be a bit of a grind: long hours, lots and lots of miles on the truck (just ask Dan Nichols), and if you are not a hyper-extrovert it will make you weary. But, this process can also be amazing. There are few things as exhilarating [...]

On Tuesday I shared some of the discussion that I had with one of my former students about his experience with the church over the past decade.  The conversation was triggered by a post on the cooperation between the churches in Portland, and the city’s openly gay mayor. My motivation for writing the original post was not to beat up on the church, but to encourage the church to take responsibility for the reputation that [...]

Last year J.R. Briggs and a team of others launched the Epic Fail Pastor’s Conference.  Realizing the need to deal with our failings and woundings in ministry in a healthy, non-perfect environment the conference allowed pastors (and recovering pastors) the opportunity to be honest, vulnerable, and hopeful with one another, themselves, and the Holy Spirit.  I asked J.R. to share a little of the story behind the conference with us.  Read through to the end to [...]