3 Tips on Leading Laterally
When most people hear the word leadership, they think of the relationship between the leader and those he/she is responsible for, serves, and shepherds. But when we understand leadership as Oswald Sanders describes it—as “influencing others”—we must include “leading laterally.” By lateral leadership I am referring to leading your peers, those you serve alongside but […]
3 Ways to Re-Declare Vision
There has been a lot written about the importance of “casting a clear and compelling vision.” Leaders often invest a lot of time with their leadership teams crafting words, figuring out the best way to capture the direction they sense the Lord leading the church they serve. And leaders often invest far too little time […]
6 Ways to Shift Responsibility
A team of people who shift blame from one person to another, who do not embrace ultimate responsibility, will never accomplish anything great. And a team who collectively tolerates the shifting of responsibility will never fulfill its mission as fully as it could. Of course, no one wants to admit that he/she is not taking […]
Two Wise Approaches for Group Content
I recently shared research that demonstrated group leaders want direction for their groups. They realize that a wise discipleship plan would be helpful for developing the people in their groups over time. Sadly, many church leaders fail to offer one. Thus, their churches are filled with a lot of guys like Jason… Imagine Jason in […]
Three Common Mistakes Pastors Make
I was recently honored to discuss leadership on a panel at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference with Greg Matte, Rodney Woo, and Jack Graham. People submitted questions beforehand, and one of the questions that Pastor Greg sent my way was “What are the most common mistakes pastors make?” Here are three: 1. Not offering clarity Marcus […]
Four E’s of Building a Team
A wise leader obsesses over having the right players on the team. Whether hiring employees or recruiting volunteers, I find it helpful to have a general framework from which you view potential team members. Over the last couple of posts, I shared some thinking on the four C’s: character, competence, chemistry, and conviction. I personally […]
Four C’s of Building a Team, part two
To help ministry leaders think about how they recruit people to join their teams, I thought it would be helpful to look at two frameworks commonly used in recruiting/hiring. One that has been particularly helpful to me is the Four C’s: character, competence, chemistry, and conviction. I wrote about character and competence on Tuesday, so […]
Four C’s of Building a Team
A wise leader obsesses over having the right players on the team. A team filled with the right players is exponentially more effective than a team filled with the wrong players. Whether hiring employees or recruiting volunteers, I find it helpful to have a general framework from which you view potential team members. Two of […]
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 […]
Common Errors in Contextualization
The Jesus-centered church is a church that affirms certain characteristics from its surrounding culture while still holding faithfully to the gospel. The purpose of contextualization is to glorify God by reaching sinners with the gospel of Christ. And every church executes some type of contextualization to this end. But as we all know, good efforts […]