Your Leadership Shelf Life
Leadership is always a temporary assignment—always. It is a temporary assignment because leaders do not ultimately own the teams, ministries, or organizations that they lead. They simply steward what the Lord has entrusted to their care for a season. Wise leaders embrace the temporal reality of leading, and they prepare the ministry for the future. […]
Who, What, and Where
Yesterday I was talking to a good friend about his next ministry assignment and what is most compelling to him about his next step in vocational ministry. We talked about which is more important to him during this next phase of his life—the who, the what, or the where. Through my years in ministry, I […]
Simple Church Epilogue Part 2
It has been nearly eight years since Simple Church was first released. Now after eight years of discussions and observations with church leaders, I am offering a series of blog posts on the five most significant lessons learned since then. The last post was about the proclivity for churches to drift. The second lesson is […]
A Woeful Substitute
The apostle Paul challenged Timothy, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Notice the order of the language. Paul did not say, “Entrust to able men who will one day be faithful.” He did not encourage […]
Ministry Is a Cruel God
I took my first full-time pastoral position right out of college. I was serving as a full-time student pastor and desperately wanted to see students meet Jesus, live out their faith, and grow in the Lord. But at some point in my first few months, I became unhealthily obsessed with the ministry. It was likely […]