Church Culture and the Gospel
Will Mancini is the founder and leader of Auxano, a consulting group that helps church leaders navigate growth with vision clarity. Since Will and I are often pigeonholed as “strategy guys,” some have viewed us as pragmatic types. But we are guys who deeply love Jesus and believe the gospel must impact everything a church […]
Three Responses to a Fading Spotlight
In the landscape of ministering to the church, the tide of a leader’s influence often rises and falls. From an eternal perspective, the Lord uses different messengers in different seasons to accomplish His purposes. From a human vantage point, some leaders experience seasons of great influence: people read every word they write, they speak at […]
The Bride of Christ
Unless you have dozed off at every wedding you attended, you have heard the famous passage about God making two people one. When God first set the foundation for marriage in the book of Genesis, He said that two people will become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). God is describing the depth of a relationship where […]
Theology of Transformation
As church leaders, we long to see transformation in the lives of people, our church, and our city. Alton Garrison of the Assemblies of God says “Our mission is not complete until we have seen people have life change.” The word from the Scriptures often associated with transformation is “metamorphosis.” It communicates lasting and irreversible […]
Naming Your Ministries and Programs
At some point most church leaders are going to sit in a room and discuss what to name a ministry or a program in their churches. For many churches the naming process is haphazard and unintentional, and the resulting hot mess of names only confirms the lack of coherent strategy in the church. To help […]
The Importance of Clarity
Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people. A clear process has ability. It has the ability to be easily communicated and understood. Clarity involves certainty, and it eliminates confusion. For a church to be simple, the process must have a high degree of clarity. Clarity and simplicity […]
Ignorance: A Barrier to Worship
Seeking satisfaction in the wrong wells and harboring unconfessed sin prohibit the worship that honors God and replenishes our souls. So, too, does ignorance. Jesus confronts and corrects this problem in the life of the Samaritan woman: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought […]
Dieting and Church Strategy
There are many different diet strategies that work. For example, one person may use the Weight Watcher program—counting calories and increasing fruit and vegetable intake—and see great results. Another person may go the low-carb route, an entirely different approach, and also see great results. The key, of course, is picking a strategy and sticking with […]
Spiritual Mock Prison
In the early 1970s, a social scientist named Philip Zimbardo led a team of scientists from Stanford University in an interesting experiment. The team built a mock prison in the basement of the University’s psychology department. The scientists placed advertisements in the local papers looking for volunteers who would participate in the experiment. Zimbardo and […]
Ruin or Restoration
We resemble the God/god we revere, and this will either be for our ruin or our restoration. If the people we serve are not deeply impressed with Christ, the gods they serve will leave them ruined. They will live lifeless, worthless lives lacking the transformation only God can bring. Augustine recounted a chilling story about […]