Volunteers: Slot filling vs people developing

Volunteers: Slot filling vs people developing

I’ve been involved many times in the early stages of new churches that are trying to incorporate people. Most often, there’s far more concern about filling all of the necessary slots for volunteers to run the program than there is about developing people into their...
In the California gold rush, who made the money?

In the California gold rush, who made the money?

I’ll give you a hint. Generally speaking, it was not the gold miners. It was those who supplied the gold miners– the people who sold them shovels, tents, maps, equipment. The people who made money were the people supplying needed items. People wanting to get...
Making serving relational and inclusive

Making serving relational and inclusive

A church had been engaging in a Saturday morning food distribution ministry to neighborhood families. One man at the church drove by and saw all these people lined up, waiting in line for the food distribution. That gave the man an idea: interact with them. Here they...
Broadening our perspective

Broadening our perspective

“If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord — and he will repay you!” — Proverbs 19:17 NLT There is a blessing that comes to us when we serve and help the poor. It may not– and likely is not– a financial blessing, but rather a blessing...

A story of cross-cultural church planting

I love finding stories of church planting the mainstream media. A friend in Denver sent me this story from the Denver Post. A Methodist Church in Westminster, Colorado began sponsoring Cuban refugees in 1962. The reverend and his family led the way by example,...

Anger management

Recently I’ve started teaching a class on anger management for teenage moms at a local high school. Parenting is hard enough even when you have all you need.  Doing it under less than ideal circumstances is even more challenging.  There are some young women taking...

Church under a bridge?

Here’s a new solution to the church building problem—meet under an interstate bridge. I don’t know this church or its pastor personally, but a friend of mine mentioned it to me because she knows I’m always interested in unique approaches to doing church. This church...

The road to dreaming big

God often tests the quality of our commitment to a vision by asking us to humbly accept a smaller initial role. If you’re not willing to mop the floor, you shouldn’t be the senior pastor. Before God provides great resources, he asks for faithfulness with what he has...
Listening to serve

Listening to serve

Too many people go about serving without listening first. They dive in doing what they think needs to be done without really knowing if they’re hitting a point of real need or not and without knowing if what they’re doing is truly effective. As Carl George has said,...