I first learned the power of a hand written note while serving as a youth pastor in New Jersey.  Each year I would buy a stack of Christmas cards, and send them to all my students.  Instead of just signing my name, I would personalize each one with something that I appreciated about them, an inside joke that only the two of us got, or celebrating a significant event of the past year.  Because writing [...]

This is the fourth installment in a series based on my adventures in planting a church.  For more information on the series, or to see what else we have walked through, check out the original post.  My hope is to use this series to develop a resource for planters as they are thinking about diving in, or need to process their current situation… this resource is incomplete without your contribution (that is a subtle way [...]

Regardless of what we do, regardless of our local context, leadership at its very core is about people.  Ministry leadership, while grounded in God’s Word, is no different.    Tom Endersbe, Jay Therrien, and Jon Wortmann’s book Three Commitments of Leadership calls leaders to create an environment that is created to developing clarity, stability, and rhythm in the lives of their teams. As I think back on the teams that I have been a part of [...]

Last 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. Thursday I shared the first of three thoughts I had for those who are thinking about church planting: Limit Your Exposure.  Today, I [...]

Tears were streaming down his face as he silently wept: “I can see it so clearly… I just haven’t had the ability to put it into words… which makes people think I don’t know where we are going.” Clarity is powerful. One of my most favorite things to do through my work with Church Simple is to help church leaders clearly communicate what it is that they are called to… and then helping them do [...]

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 [...]