A Caution in “Evaluating Worship”
Multiple summers, while living in Miami, massive spots in my lawn were completely parched. I am not referring to small spots that can be corrected with a few patches of grass; I mean embarrassingly ruined sections of my lawn that caused my neighbors to cast looks of sympathy my way because my house had potentially […]
The Unity of Babel
In Genesis 11, our triune God intervened and confused the language of the people of Babel who were building for their own namesake. In their own effort and for their own merit, they were attempting to achieve security (a tower to protect them), community (a city with people), and identity (a name for themselves). Because […]
Two Keys to Having an Effective Group Strategy in Your Church
One of the biggest takeaways from the research behind our upcoming book Transformational Groups is the need for churches to be more clear and focused in their group strategy. Church leaders must know how their groups (classes, Bible fellowships, etc.) fit into their overall discipleship strategy/process, and many don’t. They simply have groups. Once leaders know how […]
What People Want from Your Groups
Ed Stetzer, Micah Fries, and I are currently working on a new book, Transformational Groups, based on insights gleaned from a massive research project conducted on small groups (including classes, Bible fellowships, etc). In one phase of the research, the research team at LifeWay Research surveyed and interviewed people who were once in a group but […]
Are Groups Really Important in Your Church?
I believe groups (classes, Bible fellowships, etc) should be important to churches because God has supernaturally ordained community to sanctify His people. God, who is an eternal community of three Persons, created community for our benefit and His glory. And small groups help believers live in community with one anther. Though most pastors say that […]
Enron & Your Church
The Enron scandal is perhaps the most documented case of corporate greed, cover-up, and dishonesty. The lack of integrity displayed by Enron executives robbed people of millions of dollars and led, at that time, the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. In the midst of the scandal, proudly displayed in the lobby at Enron were […]
The Burden of Earning
Each year as Veterans Day and Memorial Day approach, TV networks often play epic war movies that help Americans remember the sacrifice and the service of the soldiers who have protected and defended us. Perhaps the most popular war movie is Saving Private Ryan. As the movie reached its climax, some of us preachers sat on […]
When Tragedy Strikes a Church
Below is one of the videos I recorded for The Nines conference on the topic of dealing with tragedy in the church. They chose to use the teaching on “How to Gracefully Kill a Church Program” instead of this video, but I thought I would post it here. In January 2011, I was serving as […]
How to Gracefully Kill a Church Program
Last Friday I was privileged to speak at The NINES, an online leadership conference sponsored by Leadership Network. In this five-minute video I talked about how to gracefully kill a church program. After writing Simple Church several years ago, it is one of the questions I have been most frequently asked.
Culture Reveals What Is Truly Important
Since the 1950s, mountain climbers have traveled to Everest to stand on top of the world. They endure horrific conditions on a grueling climb to the top, including a difficult passage through the “death zone” where lack of oxygen leads to exhaustion and the extreme cold will cause frostbite to any exposed part of the […]