Leadership and 3 Other Types of “Smart”
My daughters and I have been discussing different types of intelligence. It began when Eden and Evie were asking questions about “being smart in school.” I shared that while I wanted them to study hard and do as well as possible, there are other types of intelligence than “school smart.” In fact, “school smart” is […]
Who Are These Christians?
The early church experienced favor among people in the broader culture (Acts 2:47). As they met together and cared for one another (Acts 2:44-46), the world took notice. John MacArthur, in his commentary on Acts, states, “Some of the reasons the early church found favor with the common people can be discerned from the apology […]
Groups and Groups Studies Matter
In my most recent book Transformational Groups, which I co-wrote with Ed Stetzer, we share that research strongly indicates the people in your church who are in a group are more likely to serve more sacrificially, share the gospel more frequently, give more generously, and repent more regularly than those not in a group. For […]
Lead Your Church to Love Your City
The following is a guest post from David Lopez. J. David Lopez is the husband of Adriana, father of Dave and Isabella, follower of Jesus, and campus pastor of Christ Fellowship Downtown Miami. Within a half hour of the writing of this article, I noticed some pretty graphic extremes. On one end, I heard about […]
A Time I Was Confronted for My Cynical Criticism
One moment sticks out in my mind from journalism class my senior year in high school. It was late fall and the journalism class at a rival high school published one of those black and white high school newspapers, and we had several copies. Our teacher passed them out to us and sat at his […]
Living As Enemies No More
Disunity and relational strife seem to plague many churches. I hear of fighting and grumbling over a plethora of issues ranging from music style to Bible translations to dress to room usage. Disunity in a local church hurts the mission of Christ as it does not show the result of our salvation – that believers […]
A Wandering Ministry
There is a tendency in any organization, in any ministry, toward wandering. For a season, people might be focused and motivated to move in a single direction, but then something happens. Things catch their attention. Other priorities come up. The urgency that was once so acutely felt fades to the background. Slowly the organization drifts […]
Don’t Let Strategy Trump the Vision of Discipleship
The following is a guest post by Michael Kelley, director of discipleship at LifeWay Christian Resources. Antione de Saint-Exupery, the French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator, once said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to […]
Diagnosing Ministry Phase in Your Context
The Lord used Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and Nehemiah is often recognized for being a strong and focused leader. It is important to note that he did not merely show up in Jerusalem, after arriving from serving under the Persian king in captivity, and declare a direction. Before he articulated a vision […]
4 Ministry Reminders from Backyard Bible Club
A few weeks ago, we hosted a Backyard Bible Club at our house. About 35 kids, mostly from our neighborhood, came to our house from 9:30-11:30 each morning for three days. Kaye recruited friends, neighborhood moms, and teenagers to help. It was great. Our kids loved it. The neighborhood kids loved it. And it was […]