Love God | Love Others | Make Disciples
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Out of the boat
by guest blogger Jonathan LaBarge The disciples are straining at the oars. The current, the wind, perhaps even the sea itself seems against them. Darkness cuts off their vision from the confines of the boat (Mt. 14). Where are they going? Could they even make it...
Navigating leadership challenges
Because leadership challenges look different in every church plant, they can be difficult both to identify and to figure out how to handle. Sometimes the issue is a spiritual one; other times it’s a management one; sometimes a combination. Different problems...
The leadership challenge
This blog entry has been excerpted from my upcoming book, The Church Planting Journey. Without exception, every church planter I know of has gone through a leadership challenge at some point in his or her planting process. A leadership challenge is when things go...
Spiritual warfare and church planting
This blog entry has been excerpted from my upcoming book, The Church Planting Journey. These are two topics you don’t always see in the same sentence. Yet I’d argue that they are inextricably linked. When you are planting a church, you are encroaching on what the...
Church revitalization and a spirit of fear
You’ve seen this situation before: A beloved pastor of many years has gone and now there’s a new pastor. The congregation is finding it hard to readjust. Even small changes in direction feel threatening. There is uncertainty about where the church is going. What will...
Sustainability — in farming and in ministry
I often take long bike rides through the agricultural regions around Santa Rosa. The vineyards are beautiful, and I’ve noticed frequent signs stating, “This is a sustainable farm.” Not having farming roots myself, I wasn’t sure exactly what sustainable farming...
Drafting the values: creating behavioral descriptions and connecting to scripture
Drafting the values is the last stage in this five-part process of identifying core values for a church or ministry. To read the full series of blog entries, do a search for “identifying core values” on the Logan Leadership blog. Drawing from the exercises that have...
Reaching consensus: Affinity exercise
After engaging in listening prayer, identifying core behaviors, and sorting them into categories, it’s time for your team to begin reaching consensus on what your core values are. I find the affinity exercise helpful for this purpose. It allows all people to have an...
Reverse engineering into categories: The bin sort
After the team has brainstormed a long list of behaviors affirmed and practiced by the community, it’s time to reverse engineer those behaviors into value categories. I like to use the bin sort exercise. Each behavior is written on an index card. Looking at the list...
Identifying core behaviors
To help facilitate the identification of core values, it can be helpful to start with behaviors and then work backwards. This process results in actual values rather than desired values. Actual values are those lived out in behaviors, while desired values are those...
Listening prayer: Asking God questions
Determining core values needs to be a Spirit-led process. Although we borrow strategies and exercises from the secular world or businesses, we must never forget that we are part of the Kingdom of God. As such, God is leading, not us. We need to listen with an open...
Most church conflicts spring from differing values
At the beginning of a new ministry or a church plant, leaders often discuss the issue of core values: What are we about? What do we stand for? What makes us different? Yet for existing ministries, it can be helpful periodically to return to the question of core values...