I have been thinking about the command to “Rejoice Always” a lot over the last five weeks for two reasons. First, I have been preparing for a teaching series on God’s will in the Scripture “rejoicing always” is clearly His desire for us. The apostle Paul wrote: “Rejoice always. Pray constantly, give thanks in everything;…
Church Leadership
3 Indications Data is King and Not Friend
My friend Ed Stetzer often says, “Facts are our friends,” when encouraging leaders to learn from important research. He is right. Wise leaders don’t ignore facts. They understand reality and offer hope and mission in the midst of that reality. Data should be a friend of ministry leaders. As examples: Data about the number of…
A New Tool From My Friends at Visioneering Studios
When I served at LifeWay Christian Resources, I regularly recommended Visioneering Studios to church leaders who are considering building or renovating a facility. They do excellent work and they ground their design in the story of what God has done and is doing in the life of each church. When I became the senior pastor…
Data in Ministry: a Cruel God But a Great Tool
Ministry leaders should have a complicated relationship with data. We should value data because it can be used as a tool to help us make wise decisions. But we must not value data too much, and must not find our worth and identity in a number or spreadsheet. Data can help ministry leaders make wise…
3 Reminders to Seminary Graduates, Past and Present
May is the month of graduations, not only for high school and college students but also for seminary students. I remember both of my graduations from Southern Seminary (I completed both masters and doctoral studies at Southern), and they were big days for my family and me. Kaye and my parents attended and we celebrated…
3 Practical Challenges of Less Frequent Church Attendance
Several years ago, while I served at LifeWay Christian Resources, we noticed a big shift in the definition of “regular church attender.” The speed of the shift seemed to be fairly dramatic and it transcended theological tribe and type of church. In other words, people from every type of church were attending less frequently than…
A Counterintuitive View of Multiple Campuses and Sudden Pastoral Transitions
Gosh, that is a long blog title. It almost reads like a dissertation title, so let me explain. One overwhelming argument against a church having multiple campuses or congregations is “what happens to those campuses if the celebrity pastor dies or blows up his life?” By a church having multiple congregations or campuses, I am…
Sunday was “National Student Pastor Preaching Day” and Why That’s Great
I was preaching the week after Christmas the first time I heard someone joke about the youth pastor preaching the week after Christmas. I was the student pastor. The person was joking that it was “national student pastor preaching Sunday” because many senior pastors take the week off and hand the responsibility to the student…
The 4 Biggest Mistake Church Leaders Make with their Values
In 1992 the Dream Team played together in the Olympics and basketball fans went wild as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, and others were on the SAME team! Previously only college players played on the Olympic teams, so when these players formed the Dream Team, it was complete domination. Twelve years later,…
3 Characteristics of Childish Christians in Your Church
We should aspire for a childlike faith and abhor a childish one. A childlike faith is a faith that trusts and a faith that is in awe. A childish faith is a faith that, according to Andrew Murray, creates division, is unable to help others, and display gifts without grace. Because we grow over time…