What Would Aristides Say About Your Church?
The world watched how early believers cared for one another, how they supported one another in challenging times, and how they longed to meet together. The world always takes notice when Christians love one another as Christ commanded. Unity is always attractive, and unity among God’s people piques the world’s curiosity. Aristides, a 2nd century […]
Ministry Leaders: When Values Collide, Make the Right Choice
Values don’t have to collide, but when they do, leaders must decide and declare which value wins. For example, a ministry can value excellence and leadership development. But beneath the surface the values can be at odds with one another. A children’s teacher struggles to hand responsibility to another because “it won’t be excellent enough.” […]
College Food, Colliding Values, and Ministry
Malcolm Gladwell started an educational firestorm when he compared two universities in his popular Revisionist History podcast. Gladwell compared the food offered in the cafeteria at Bowdoin College with the food offered at Vassar College, along with which school is able to help lower-income students attend their college. Both are liberal arts colleges, and Bowdoin, […]
4 Reasons Superstars Hurt Local Church Ministry
You have heard the statement “A chain is only as strong as the weakest link.” In terms of building a sports team, the cliché challenges leaders to be concerned with the weakest player on the team, to be concerned with raising their skill. Some coaches and leaders live like this is true and focus their […]
6 Reasons You Should Say “Yes” When Asked to Lead in Your Church
As summer approaches, ministry leaders in many churches will spend time recruiting and training new leaders to serve in their church’s kids ministry, the youth ministry, and to lead groups and classes for adults. If you are approached and asked, here are six reasons you should say yes: 1. You will learn more deeply. If […]
God Made a Farmer and a Ministry Leader
One of my favorite Super Bowl commercials in recent memory was this commercial by Ram Trucks, using Paul Harvey’s 1978 speech “God Made a Farmer.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMpZ0TGjbWE My grandfather was a farmer in Illinois. Though he passed away many years ago, my respect for him has not waned. He started farming at a young age, while […]
5 Lessons from Fallen Pastors
Pastors and ministry leaders are not above character implosion and wandering from the Lord. In time, their wandering manifests in a variety of self-destructive and disqualifying behaviors. In the last several years, I have thought a lot about “fallen pastors.” My role at LifeWay provides a painful view of the fallout. As pastors are removed […]
4 Reasons Ministry Leaders Don’t Get “The Real World”
I was 27 years old, serving as an executive pastor and working with a team of people in the church on updating our personnel policy handbook—a necessary thing to do but not one that will change the world or breathe life back into your soul. One gentleman recommended we change the church office hours to […]
5 Realities About the Weight of Pastoring
Since leaving full-time local church ministry to become one of the vice-presidents at LifeWay, I have always missed and loved the local church. Dr. Draper, the former president of LifeWay, once told a leader on my team, “If you ever stop missing being on local church staff, leave immediately.” The sentiment was that we could […]
5 Misconceptions About Pastors
All-star Cleveland Cavalier Kyrie Irving recently told the sports media that he believes the earth is flat. He insists he has done the research and has rejected the propaganda deployed against us to convince us that the earth is round. When asked about it, Lebron James responded, “Kyrie is my little brother. He’s my All-Star […]