Ministry Best Practices

Your Email Year-In-Review

2012-01-14T08:18:00.000-05:00

Curious to know your email behavior and usage? How much email did you have to process last year? Who were your biggest senders? Who did you communicate with the most?

This free analysis from ToutApp is a great resource which will give you an overview of how you are using your email. Check out mine and HERE and to get your free report as well.

Be Careful Who You Root For

2012-01-13T09:21:00.002-05:00

Church signs try to get too cute for their own good! (courtesy of Ed Stetzer)

10 Thoughts About Leadership

2012-01-10T13:19:00.000-05:00

- Guest Post By Jon Gordon

At a time when the world is thinking a lot about leadership I believe it’s a great opportunity for each one of us to think about what leadership means to us. Below I’ve shared some of my thoughts on leadership from my latest book Soup and whether you are a leader of a business, team, hospital, sports team, classroom, church or home, I hope you’ll think about what principles and ideas guide you as a leader and feel free to share them on our blog here or Facebook page.

1. People follow the leader first and the leader’s vision second – It doesn’t matter if the leader shares a powerful vision, if the leader is not someone who people will follow the vision will never be realized. As a leader, who you are makes a difference. The most important message you can share is yourself.

2. Trust is the force that connects people to the leader and his/her vision – Without trust there is a huge gap between the leader and the vision. Without trust people will stay off the bus. However if people trust the leader they will hop on the bus with the leader and help move the bus forward towards the vision.

3. Leadership is not just about what you do but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do.

4. A leader brings out the best within others by sharing the best within themselves.

5. Just because you’re driving the bus doesn’t mean you have the right to run people over – Abraham Lincoln said “Most anyone can stand adversity, but to test a man’s character give him power.” The more power you are granted the more it is your responsibility to serve, develop and empower others. When you help them grow they’ll help you grow.

6. “Rules without Relationship Leads to Rebellion” – Andy Stanley said this and it’s one of my favorite quotes. As a leader you can have all the rules you want but if you don’t invest in your people and develop a relationship with them they will rebel. This applies amazingly to children as well. It’s all about relationships.

7. Lead with optimism, enthusiasm and positive energy, guard against pessimism and weed out negativity.

8. Great Leaders know they don’t have all the answers – Rather they build a team of people who either know the answers or will find them.

9. Leaders inspire and teach their people to focus on solutions, not complaints. (The No Complaining Rule)

10. Great leaders know that success is a process not a destination – One of my heroes John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, never focused on winning. He knew that winning was the by-product of great leadership, teamwork, focus, commitment and execution of the fundamentals. As a leader, focus on your people and process, not the outcome.

About Jon Gordon:This post is a guest post by Jon Gordon. Jon is the Wall Street Journal and international bestselling author of a number of books including The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy, and his latest, The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work. Learn more at www.JonGordon.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonGordon11 or Facebook www.facebook.com/jongordonpage .

What Happened To Downtime?

2012-01-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

From the introduction:

Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world's information at our fingertips.

Read the whole of Scott Belsky's article and his five solutions.

But take careful consideration of his first solution - which we know has biblical underpinnings - The Sabbath

Creating a Ritual for unplugging. 

Perhaps those in biblical times knew what was in store for us when they created the Sabbath? The notion of a day every week reserved for reflection has become more important than ever before. It's about more than just refraining from work. It's about unplugging. The recent Sabbath Manifesto movement has received mainstream, secular accolades for the concept of ritualizing the period of disconnection. Perhaps you will reserve one day on the weekend where you force yourself to disconnect? At first, such efforts will feel very uncomfortable. You will deal with a bout of “connection withdrawal,” but stay with it.  

Too often, Christians view the Sabbath as an obligation, rule or demand rooted in the dusty, archaic law of the Old Testament. But rather we need to see the heart of the Sabbath, as God has given it to us - it is a GIFT. It is not only a gift of time, but we discover the true and ultimate fulfillment of that Sabbath rest, which is found in Christ and Him alone. (Hebrews 4)

Don't neglect the Sabbath, we are more and more in need of this gift within our plugged in, turned on and tuned out generation.

Get InSync With Your Files

2012-01-03T13:28:00.001-05:00

I love it when I see easy, cheap and practical productivity tools. These kinds of tools are such an asset to non-profits, ministries and churches. That is why I have been such a fan of apps such as Dropbox. But now there is something new that has come along, very much like Dropbox, but lives within your Google Docs - called Insync.

I am a google apps fanatic and practically live in them, especially Gdocs - so to be able to sync, store and share files within that environment is very compelling to me. Since it rides along the google app, the fees/costs are structured by Google and therefore even cheaper than Dropbox. Here is brief overview of this app:

Advertising itself as a cheaper Dropbox alternative with a better feature set, Insync has been in closed beta for the last 15 months. Now, they're finally ready to launch with a service that tightly integrates into Google Docs. It's "8x cheaper" than Dropbox, according to their marketing; in fact, the core service is now free, and customers who paid for the service during the beta period will be offered a refund or premium service credit. The only cost for basic membership is the cost of Google storage.

Insync brings a number of novel features to the table, differentiating it from Dropbox's current service. For example, you can share individual files with more granularity -- not just as public links, but specifying read-write or read-only permissions. You can also revoke a sharing link, which isn't possible on Dropbox unless you move or delete the shared file.
All your files live inside your Google Docs account, but that doesn't mean you're limited to the supported Google file types; any file can be synced over, as long as it's less than 10GB in size (assuming you have that much room in your storage allocation).

You can nest sharing privileges so people have access to just part of a folder structure. You can also set re-sharing permissions, specifying whether those you share with can re-share that material or not. Share recipients are not charged against their storage quota.

Insync supports multiple Google accounts and uses Google's storage system. Google starts with 1GB free storage, and then moves to 20GB for $5/year up to 16 TB for $4096/year. Dropbox's pricing rates includes 2GB free storage, and then jump to 50 GB paid storage at $10/month. Dropbox's 50 GB will cost you $120/year compared to Google's $20/year for 80 GB. That's $0.25 per GB per year for Google Docs versus $2 per GB per year for Dropbox.
To use Insync, you sign in with your Google credentials and permit it to gain access to Google Docs. You then download and install the client software on your computer. From there, you launch, link the Google account to your machine, and you're ready to go. On OS X, all your Google Docs appear in a Finder window.

In its current incarnation, Insync feels a lot like Dropbox, and if you're used to Dropbox, then you already know how to use Insync.

I have been using InSync for about a week, and so far I'm loving it.

Churches Investing In Their Own Apps

2011-12-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

Do you use a smartphone?

You probably do...and if you do then you are using native apps for all kinds of specific tasks and programs and churches are no exception as churches/ministries are getting into the act more and more by developing their own apps.

Smartphone apps are now easier and cheaper to design and distribute more than ever, giving greater accessibility to churches and ministries with limited budgets and resources. Here is the article from the Wall Street Journal illustrating this trend - Churches Bring Custom Apps to Their Flocks

App developers say more than 150 churches across the U.S. have had customized smartphone and tablet apps created to connect with their members. The church apps are a relatively new twist on the broader influx of technology into religious life that includes popular apps for prayer and even making confessions.

Pastors and parishioners say the technology can enable people to uphold the call to stay religiously involved at all times, not just on Sunday. App developers expect thousands of churches to develop the apps in coming years to meet demand from worshipers.

With my ministry I've taken advantage of this opportunity by using a great online tool called Conduit - here are my mobile apps that I produced at little cost (the cost comes from the mobile platforms such as Android and Apple).

Enter Church At Your Own Risk

2011-12-19T20:16:00.000-05:00

This sign made me laugh! I think it's great that the church welcomes people, even though in doing so they need to explain the fish smell and possum damage. Classic!

Sign from Maori Anglican Church at Raukokore, East Cape, New Zealand.

(ht: Arbroath)

Why Young People Leave The Church

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

A recent study conducted by the Barna Group provides explanations as to why young American Christians are leaving the church. Reasons include a general idea that the church is overprotective, and that Christianity is too exclusive.

Young people were reported to leave the church for the following reasons: (1) The church is overprotective. (2) Teens' and 20-somethings' experience of Christianity is shallow. (3) Churches come across as antagonistic to science. (4) Young Christians' church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental. (5) They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity. (6) The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt. Click here to read research findings with fuller explanations of these concerns.

8 Of The Most Important Considerations When Hiring

2011-10-30T23:44:00.001-04:00

From Brad Lomenick:

1. Hire slow and fire fast. Many organizations are just the opposite, hiring fast and firing slow.

2. Look for heart and hands, not just mind and spirit.

3. Culture is key. As the leader, do you want to hang out with them? Hire people you want to be friends with.

4. Don’t just interview them. “intern” them. This is our system at Catalyst.

5. Hire a doer, not just a talker.

6. Benchmark the Experts. Who are the best people in the world at the position you are hiring? Figure out who that is, and contact them. For advice, suggestions, and to understand why they are so good at what they do. Learn from them and build a job description for your new hire from that.

7. Be wary of the “stepping stone” mentality. If you are another stop on the journey for someone, then run. Reality is – people are transitioning all the time. But that shouldn’t be their mindset going in when hiring them.

8. Do your homework. Have potential team members take personality tests, talk to their references, and spend as much time as you can with them.

(ht: Brad)

Three Big Considerations Before You Recruit Volunteers

2011-10-19T10:51:00.000-04:00

Before you start recruiting volunteers for your church and ministry you have to ask yourself these three strategic questions:

What kind of person do you need? - Traits, Skills, Personality, Experience??

What is the level of difficulty for the position and opportunity being filled? - Develop an honest assessment of all that position will entail and require.

What are the most likely methods that you will use to fill that position? - Will you recruit from an existing group of volunteers? Go outside the organization? etc...

If you miss the mark in accurately assessing any of these questions, you will either go after and put the wrong people in certain volunteer positions. Or you will advertise and offer volunteer opportunities and positions that portray unrealistic demands or expectations (either easier or more difficult).

Spending time on these questions will make sure you get the right person doing the right job and being able to fill that job when needed.

Fund Your Church Now

2011-10-17T22:26:00.001-04:00

My friend Casey Graham is the real deal - he's a guy who loves the Lord and has a genuine passion, and proven expertise in helping churches fund their churches in order that they can effectively accomplish their calling and Kingdom work.

This Thursday, Casey and Giving Rocket will be hosting a FREE online conference.

I know that you can come up with a ton of reasons why you shouldn't sign up for this or why you think that another conference on giving won't work....You might be saying....

"You just don't know my people"

The bottom line is that while your church has a unique mission and culture, people are generally the same. People ARE different, but we all share some of the same hopes, dreams and fears.

"We're NOT in a wealthy area"

Pastors in urban churches say that people in the city don't have any money. Pastors in rural areas talk about how hard it is to get people to give. Suburban pastors complain about how overextended their people are.

"Our church is different"

While it may be true that your church has a focused mission, God has called you to love him and
reach people. That bottom-line mission is for churches of all shapes, sizes and styles.
Stop using your unique calling as an excuse for low funding.

You don't want to miss this!

Facebook Wants You To Tell Your Story

2011-09-23T08:16:00.000-04:00

Facebook has always appeared to many as a site where people merely share with the world, "This is the cereal I am eating for breakfast this morning!". But that perception is about to change through a radical new design.

In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. Facebook is becoming a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

Facebook wants to be the place where your story comes alive. What does this mean for those of us who are in ministry? I can only speak about my experience, but since I personally use Facebook and connect with those in my ministry through Facebook, seeing and understanding people's "story" becomes an opportunity to experience and know the people I minister to perhaps a little bit better. I think it takes Facebook out of the realm of merely being a stream of people's minutia to seeing the broad and sweeping panoramic of a person's life.

Below is a great video which will give you an overview of this new Facebook look.

Although it looks like everyone eventually will be migrated to this new page, if you want to be at the front of line when it gets initially rolled out, you can go HERE to sign up.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Timeless Words To Pastors

2011-09-22T11:33:00.001-04:00

“A pastor should not complain about their congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and man. When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament. But if not, let him nevertheless guard against ever becoming the accuser of the congregation before God.Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief. Let him pray God for an understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren. Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren. Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.

Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling for his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

(ht: Sets'nService)
(image from SirColby - found HERE)

Are You Providing A Way For Your Donors To Give Online?

2011-09-20T00:42:00.000-04:00

If not you should!

Online donations is the fastest growing means for nonprofits.

(click on image for a larger view)

(ht: Mashable)

Ten Signs You Are Near A Burnout/Meltdown

2011-09-19T00:30:00.000-04:00

From Perry Noble:

My counselor shared a statistic with me two years ago that floored me…90% of the people entering ministry DO NOT RETIRE from ministry, they either quit or have some sort of moral/ethical failure that disqualifies them.

I’m not a rocket scientist…but I honestly do not believe that is what Jesus called us to OR what He wants for our lives.

AND yet so many of us (church leaders) struggle/wrestle with this (usually inwardly because if we said out loud that we are dying inside we fear that people may perceive us as weak!)

Here are ten signs that you are near a burnout and/or meltdown…

#1 – You are beginning to despise people and your compassion for them is continually decreasing rather than increasing.

#2 – You OFTEN think about doing something other than ministry…and your biggest desire isn’t to honor God and reach people but to simply find relief from the pressure that seems to be building daily inside of you.

#3 – You cannot remember the last time you simply had fun with family and friends…and joy is something you talk about but are not experiencing for yourself.

#4 – You are disconnected at home…when you get there you do not want to engage with your spouse or your children, you cannot enjoy being around them…you spend more time online than you do with your family…and you find yourself wanting to sleep all of the time.

#5 – You continually tell yourself and those you love that “this is just a really busy season and that you will slow down soon.” (However, the truth is that you have been most likely “singing that same song” for years!)

#6 – You are continually becoming obsessed with what others say about you…and one negative comment from someone who does not like you can put you in an incredibly deep valley and cause you to feel hopeless.

#7 – You begin to make easy decisions rather than the right ones…because the right ones take too much work.

#8 – There is no hope in you…and, you actually despair life. You have actually thought of death…and some have even entertained suicidal thoughts.

#9 – You are experiencing unexplained depression and/or anxiety. You are even having panic attacks and you can’t explain it!

#10 – You are increasingly becoming withdrawn from family and friends.

(ht: Church Leaders)

The Next Christians

2011-09-19T00:24:00.000-04:00

The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons. This is our new reality. “We are responsible to launch out in the world … and embody the Good News.”

Hipster Pastor Name Generator

2011-09-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

If you're in need of a name more awesome than good old 'pastor' then you've got to check out the Hipster Pastor Name Generator. The photo above is my new name that the program generated, instead of pastor you can now call me the "Imaginative Communal Leader!" :-)

(ht: NC New Faith Communities)

Doing Church Communication Well

2011-09-16T11:28:00.000-04:00

A new book, called Outspoken, has just come out to help move the church forward toward more effective communication. Church communication (and doing it well) is one of the biggest challenges that churches face. I look forward to this new book, which is a compilation of 60+ contributors weighing in and sharing their expertise.

From the introduction:

This book is a collection of thoughts, ideas and principles that are shaping and inspiring the way some outspoken church communications leaders are leading communication in their churches, from churches of 25 to 25,000, from Des Moines, Iowa, to Sydney, Australia. Throughout these pages you’ll be challenged to think through how your church is communicating and consider new ways of thinking.

The end goal of this book is to engage you in an ongoing conversation about the role of communication in the church. It is our prayer that these thoughts will frustrate, educate and motivate you and your church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the
truth of Jesus.

Want to see more? Then check out the Outspoken website, and download a sample of the book

How To Measure Your Church's Evangelism Heartbeat

2011-09-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

FLATLINE

Some churches have a loud, high drone and a flatline on their heart monitor. There is no love for God, nor is there a relentless love for the lost. These churches are closed off to visitors, their community, and the world. They don’t reach out or train their members to share Jesus’ love.Prayer for their community is nonexistent. There was a heartbeat at some time in the distant past, but today the church is flatlining.

WEAK PULSE

Sometimes when a doctor checks for a pulse, he’ll say, “I have a pulse, but it’s weak.” There is still life in the body, but action needs to be taken quickly to sustain it.

Many churches have a pulse and there is life, but it’s faint. There is love for God and for people, but it is waning.

If this is a picture of your church, be honest and admit it. You might have a map on a wall somewhere with several pins showing where you send money to support missionaries. You might do an event or two each year that “spiritual seekers” are welcome to attend. You might even try to be friendly if a guest or visitor happens to wander into your church on a Sunday morning.

But honestly, your passion for outreach is gone.

Your church lacks a desperate love for God that will drive you into the world with His good news. You are nice to people who visit your church, but you don’t go out of your way to reach those who are far from God. You send money overseas, but you don’t engage the mission field right next door.

RAPID HEARTBEAT

Sometimes, a heart races wildly. This can be very dangerous, because if a person’s heart pumps too fast for too long, it can lead to cardiac arrest and eventually death.

Some churches’ monitors show that their hearts are beating two or three times faster than a healthy heart. Because these churches love God and want to be faithful to His love for lost people, they launch outreach program after outreach program and initiative after initiative. Church members grow tired and exhausted as the congregation jumps into the latest evangelistic fads.

Outreach is not organic in a church like this. Instead, it feels fabricated and inauthentic. While the motives are right, the practice of outreach is so forced that it fails to bear much fruit. Churches like this often experience frustration when they try lots of programs but never find something that works. They invest lots of money and time, and they genuinely love God, but lost people rarely come to know and embrace Jesus.

GETTING BACK TO YOUR FIRST LOVE

The first and most critical step a church needs to take to move toward healthy outreach is to develop a growing love for God. In the book of Revelation, Jesus says to the church of Ephesus, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” Whenever our love for God ceases to be first place in our hearts, our vision for reaching out wanes.

Jesus made this clear when He taught his disciples that the first and most important of all the commandments is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This is not just our calling as individual followers of Christ; it is also our calling as a church. If we forget our first love, our collective heart will grow cold, and nothing that we do will have the impact we desire.

Loving God does not begin with our own efforts. It is based on the awareness that God was passionately seeking us long before we ever sought Him. In the letter of First John, we find a powerful tutorial on the love of God. We learn, first and foremost, that God is love. Because of His love for us, we can become children of God. The depth of the Father’s love was revealed when He sent His only Son to this Earth to die in our place on the cross for our sins. As we are grounded in God’s love for us and as we learn to walk in this love, we will continue to grow in our love for people and for God.

If your church is struggling to invest in reaching your community and the world, ask yourself this question: are we a church that is on fire with a passion for God? If reaching out to others has been pushed to the back burner (or off the stove entirely), it probably won’t help to add some spice to the meal. You need to start by turning up the heat.

Maybe your church has lost its first love.

Remember, God so loved the world that He gave.

Love gives. And when a congregation’s heart pounds hard for God, we give of ourselves—our time, our resources, our lives—to love others.

(read the entire post HERE)

This article adapted from Organic Outreach for Churches.

(ht: Church Leaders)

Build Your Team By Breaking Bread

2011-09-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Roughly speaking, you have about 240 chances a year to eat lunch with your staff. That’s not a lot, so don’t squander a day of it!

There is incredible power when we share a meal together with others. During those times when we break bread with one another, we get to know more about that person than if we were simply in other staff meeting together. We let down our guard when we eat. We share our innovative ideas, our observations; we dish about our kids and what we did over the weekend; we laugh together and real relationship is built and developed. Soak that up!

Make sure you take the time to grab lunch with your staff during the week.

Quit Your Jibber Jabber

2011-09-14T17:00:00.000-04:00

This is an old video from a now defunct show...but as always Mr. T. gets it right - in the simplest terms possible.

What Your Church Website Says About You

2011-09-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Has your church allowed your website to get out of date, and OLD!? If so, it is probably a symptom of greater problems within your church or organization.

If your website has gotten out of date, old and stale, your church probably:

Doesn’t have a full-time or even a part-time person devoted to communications and/or website maintenance.
Doesn’t know how valuable it is to keep your website updated, especially when the majority of new visitors check the church’s website before even stepping foot in the door for the first time.
Doesn't realize that if the lead pastor doesn't value or is ambivalent toward the church's digital presence, then chances are that most of the staff and church won't care much either. The lead pastor must lead in this area!
Doesn’t realize that digital communication about your church should really be at the top of everyone’s list, not at the bottom, or perhaps not even on the list.
Doesn’t have a church communications director, manager, or even a volunteer to help with the Facebook page and the various communication channels.

(ht: Lauren Hunter)

How To Motivate Those That Serve

2011-09-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Yes it's true that most of those who serve within the church or ministries wouldn't be doing so if they weren't already motivated to a certain degree. But ministry can be hard and demanding, and everyone needs once in a while encouragement and incentive to keep motivated and going. As leaders we need to recognize and reward those that serve alongside us and for us. Reward for the big things. And the medium things. And even the itty-bitty little things. We all like praise. If we are honest, we appreciate recognition. And those that serve with you and for you...whether they be paid staff or volunteers, will welcome those small (and even large) acts of kindness and appreciation. Here are a couple ways you can motive others

Say ‘thank you’ often, and mean it
Send birthday cards. Send a card at Christmas
Provide a clear role description for every staff person and volunteer
Make sure new staff and volunteers are welcomed warmly
Highlight the impact that the volunteer contribution is having on the organization
Show an interest in staff and volunteers’ personal interests and their outside life
Tell your staff and volunteers they have done a good job
Give volunteers a real voice within the organization
Provide meaningful and enjoyable work for your staff
Always have work for your volunteers to do and never waste their time
Send ‘thank you’ notes and letters when appropriate
Smile when you see them!
Say something positive about their personal qualities
Involve volunteers in decision-making processes
Give a certificate to commemorate anniversaries of involvement
Do 360 evaluations with your staff and volunteers, giving them a chance to evaluate you as well
Do not impose new policies and procedures without a degree of staff input - especially when those changes effect them
Walk into places your volunteers serve and publicly thank them for their service, while they are serving
Celebrate the year’s work together
Also praise your staff, not just to them, but to others
Give the volunteer a title which reflects the work they do (not just ‘volunteer’)
Consider providing, or paying for, child care for volunteers who are parents
Count up how many hours volunteers contribute and publicize this
Always be appreciative of staff and volunteers’ contributions
Provide excellent training and coaching
Reimburse out-of-pocket expenses for your volunteers
Conduct an exit interview when a volunteer leaves
Provide constructive appraisal
Present an occasional inexpensive gift - i.e. gift card to their favorite store
Send a card or flowers if staff and volunteers are ill or bereaved
Empower staff and volunteers to make decisions without micro-management

Do People Laugh At Your Vision?

2011-09-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

Pastor, do people laugh at your vision?

Do you cast a vision that is so enormous that it WILL hopelessly fail if God doesn't show up? If not, you should!

Our God longs for leaders to request of Him to do that which they cannot.

Why does He long for this type of faith? So all the glory will be His . . .He wants to amaze us and have us spellbound and breathless over His wondrous works.

Question: What are you accomplishing in your ministry presently that does not require God to pull it off? Whatever it is, please stop.

God has not called us to a natural ministry, but to a supernatural ministry which requires us to cast vision and lead in such a way that only our Super God can accomplish it.

Marinate on that.

From Pastor Dervin Gray - A former National Football League player (1993-1998), Pastor Derwin L. Gray has planted two multi-ethnic, missional churches since his transition from itinerate evangelist to pastoring. He is the founding and Lead Pastor of Transformation Church (www.tc521.org) in Indian Land, South Carolina.

(ht: Church Leaders)

How To Get Rid Of Your Pastor

2011-09-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

I offer you this tongue-in-cheek and thoughtful post by John Roberts in it's entirety:

Some time back, I heard about a church that had been trying to "get rid" of their pastor. Sadly, this is something that happens a lot in the American church scene. We get unhappy with the pastor or with something the church is doing; and then, instead of doing the biblical thing and prayerfully seeking to work out the differences, we choose up sides. Then, if there are enough votes to dismiss or enough people to make things really unpleasant, out the pastor goes.

It's tragic, not only because of what it does to that pastor, but because of the broken relationships and the slow-healing wounds left behind, which often remain long after the pastor departs. Frankly, there are simpler ways. If you ever want to get rid of your pastor, instead of looking for votes or choosing up sides, try one of these five ideas.

Idea No. 1: During the Sunday morning message, listen closely and take notes. Look your pastor straight in the eye, and occasionally nod your head and say, "Amen!" Begin to make serious efforts to apply the life lessons you learn from the sermons. In six months, he'll preach himself to death.

Idea No. 2: Pat your pastor on the back and brag on his good points two or three times a month. Make a bunch of phone calls to your friends and neighbors and tell them all the good things about your pastor. In a little while, so many more people will start coming to your church, you'll have to hire an associate pastor, and your senior pastor will be free to leave.

Idea No. 3: Next Sunday, in response to the sermon, go forward to the altar and rededicate your life to Christ. Then make an appointment with the pastor sometime next week. Ask him to give you some job you could do for the church, preferably some lost people you could go visit with a view to winning them to Christ. He'll likely die of heart failure on the spot.

Idea No. 4: Organize a ministry to call on the shut-ins and elderly members of the church, and encourage the pastor, as the early church did (see Acts 6:1-7), to devote more of his time to prayer, the study of God's Word and sermon preparation. Tell him you'll take care of the widows if he'll take care of the preaching. He'll think the whole congregation has gone completely crazy and start looking for another church immediately.

Idea No. 5: Get a whole bunch of the church members to unite in earnest intercessory prayer for the pastor, his ministry and his family. Organize prayer meetings in which you pray for the growth of the church and the blessing of the pastor. The pastor may become so effective in ministry that some larger church will gladly take him off your hands.

One note of caution, however: if you try one of these methods, you may find that you don't want to get rid of your pastor after all.

by John Roberts is the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church - find original post HERE