Ministry Leaders—Pay Careful Attention to Your Life
Last week I led a session on the importance of guarding our lives and our teaching with our Mariners Church pastors at our annual pastor retreat. Together we walked through a section of the apostle Paul’s challenge to Timothy (I Timothy 4:11-16). As Paul reminded Timothy of Timothy’s past, the moment when he became a […]
How Leadership Is Impacted by God Existing Outside of Time
“Are we going to stop the plans we had in place?” “No.” “Why not?” “Because God is eternal. Let me explain …” That was a conversation that played out several times during the pandemic. God is eternal and this weighty theological belief practically impacts leadership. God has always been and will forever be. Moses declared: […]
Lessons From an Epic Treasure Hunt That Ended in 2020
This book, Chasing the Thrill, tells the story of an amazing treasure hunt that ended last year, in 2020. Ten years earlier an art dealer named Forrest Fenn hid a treasure in the Rocky Mountains and placed a map and a poem in a book he wrote and self-published. The poem and map contained clues […]
Leaders, Pain and Beauty Seem to Go Together
I first started blogging because Thom Rainer, my former boss and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, encouraged me to use a blog to encourage and help ministry leaders thus the vast majority of my writing was for them. But after a few years of blogging Chris Martin, who helps with my blog, surveyed all the […]
Leading in Babylon or Leading in Israel?
Kaye and I were once at a movie theater, early in our marriage, in Miami. There was a box of popcorn on the row in which we were seated, with more than half the box still filled with buttered popcorn. I viewed the box as trash, as the remnants of a thoughtless moviegoer from the […]
3 Reasons Kids Ministries and Youth Ministries Can Drift from Jesus
Several years ago, I wrote a book with my good friends Matt Chandler and Josh Patterson about Jesus being the center of a local church. We called the book Creature of the Word, the title coming from an old Martin Luther quote where he taught that that when the gospel is rightly declared and applied […]
How to Humble Someone on Your Team (and Yourself Too)
How does a leader help an arrogant team member learn humility? How can a leader help someone on the team walk in humility rather than pride? It is a common leadership question because the leader knows that others don’t enjoy working alongside arrogance and that pride and hubris corrode trust. In his book, Leadership Strategy […]
Our Fragility and the Church’s Antifragility
In recent days there has been more conversations about “the greatest threat to the Church.” From people concerned about loss of religious liberty to those bemoaning a philosophical or theological position, the statement is seemingly used with ever-increasing frequency. While there could always be threats to how churches currently gather or to even what a […]
Finding Oneself on the Other Side of a Pandemic
More than any other time, I am hearing people say phrases like “I need to find myself again,” or “I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore.” Some are changing zip codes, switching careers, ending marriages and relationships in a pursuit to “find themselves” and where they fit in this world. Perhaps one […]
Sermon Prep: Why Do You Spend So Much Time on It?
Senior pastors invest varying amounts of time in sermon preparation. I have friends who spend 25 hours a week on a sermon and friends who spend 8-10 hours a week on sermons. The amount of time in sermon prep can vary based on the experience of the pastor (those with more experience have reservoirs of […]