by Allen White When I was a kid, summer started when school was out just before Memorial Day and ended just after Labor Day. We had enough time to actually wonder what we would do with ourselves. Sure, there was a week of church camp and a family vacation in there, but there were weeks and weeks of playing outside and watching old reruns, if we were fortunate enough to have a mom who wasn’t hooked on soaps. Today, summer [...]

by Randall Neighbour There are far more mistakes that pastors make in small group ministry, but here are my top five in order of urgency… 5. Choosing an oversight model in advance of a launch, based on wishful thinking, not actual needs. This mistake seems to afflict pastors in the cell church world, more than the small group world who have yet to wake up and see the need for coaches over groups and leaders (that’s another blog post altogether!). [...]

by Carey Nieuwhof Almost every church I know says they want to reach unchurched people. But few are actually doing it. Part of the problem stems from the fact that many churches don’t really understand unchurched people (here’s a post on 15 characteristics of today’s unchurched person). And part of the problem is that our model of church is designed to reach and help churched people, not unchurched people. Churches haven’t embraced change deeply enough. So you can say you [...]

by David Murray That’s the question Josh Tandy, a real rookie pastor, asks here. I have a simple two letter answer. EQ. Or rather, the lack of it. EQ is the emotional equivalent of IQ. Sometimes called “emotional intelligence” or “social intelligence,” and the lack of it is the primary reason for the majority of pastoral failures. That’s right, the main reason for rookie pastors getting fired or, even worse, rookie pastors destroying a church, is not intellectual, moral or theological [...]

By Steven Furtick • 05/23/2013 When do you know the vision has become ingrained in the culture of your church and not just in your own dreams? There’s a crucial question every ministry leader must answer when it comes to their vision. When do you know the vision has become ingrained in the culture of your church and not just in your own dreams? It’s not enough to have a vision, even a compelling one. It’s not enough to be able [...]

By Ed Stetzer • 02/15/2012 The best method and timing for outreach … and the one essential ingredient. “People still respond to the things of God, when the things of God are viewed by us as important enough to talk about.” Have you ever had that nagging feeling that no one was really listening to you? Maybe it was a meeting or a conversation with your kids or (gasp!) a Sunday message. But no matter how great a communicator you [...]

by Ray Hollenbach It’s difficult to stand in defense of the church when there are so many examples of dysfunctional churches around us. But sometimes, as preachers, we need to remind our own congregations that the church is vitally important. We were designed for community, but also something beyond mere community — we were designed for the church. Many people will object, and nearly everyone has gruesome tales of hypocrites, self-righteous blowhards and sexual predators. I get it. Some parts [...]