Offensive vs. Defensive Discipleship
There is mammoth difference between offensive discipleship and defensive discipleship. And a leader’s approach reveals his theology about the heart of people. Defensive discipleship plays to not lose the hearts of people to the world because defensive discipleship believes the hearts of people are pure. Consequently defensive discipleship focuses primarily on protecting people from influences […]
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.
Why Your Pastor Needs a Sabbatical
In a church I served years ago, I was in a committee meeting where some members were bemoaning the fact that my senior pastor was taking “a sabbatical.” One man boldly proclaimed, “The devil does not take a day off; if we want to make a difference in this community – how can our pastor […]
Burying a Program
Since writing Simple Church with my boss Thom Rainer, a common question has been, “How can we eliminate a program or an event?” Those who ask the question often know that a program on their church calendar accomplishes very little for the Kingdom and is not aligned to the mission of their church. But they […]