“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Sometimes we forget the fact that New Testament letters like Paul’s to the Romans were originally meant to be read, studied, and practiced in community. Commands like these from Romans 12, then—to rejoice, to be patient, to be persistent in prayer—are not just for…
Leadership Communication
The Folly of Mr. Autocorrect
If you communicate via text messaging, Mr. Autocorrect is often your friend. He appears to be highly educated, knows more words than you know, and knows how to spell words that you never were able to spell correctly. Thus, you often trust him to automatically correct misspelled words for you as you feverishly type messages…
How To Respond When People Aren’t Responding
Church leaders have often asked me how to handle a staff or a congregation that is not exactly eager to follow pastoral leadership. How do we respond when people are not responding to our leadership? First, we must realize that leadership is not easy. It is extremely difficult. One of my mentors once told me,…
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…
Crush These Clichés
There are several unbiblical and untrue clichés that are seemingly passed from one generation of Christians to another. And these clichés need to be crushed. Believers must continually repent of the thinking represented in these clichés, and Christian leaders must not allow these clichés to be passed off as Christian truth. Here are my top…
The Power of Repetition and Contradiction
When I served alongside Rick Blackwood as executive pastor of Christ Fellowship Miami, I was honored to preach/teach a third of the time. Because we shared the teaching, we would regularly compare notes to ensure we knew where each person was going with a text or topic. For a season, we worried about repetition. The…
Choices and Your Announcements
Earlier this week I referenced Barry Schwartz’s work The Paradox of Choice, which advocates that too many choices leads to regret because we are never confident we made the right choice. While I pointed out that this regret is really a result of our sinful hearts seeking satisfaction in things other than Christ, I do…