Loving our churches rather than merely “liking” our churches
Note: This blog entry by guest blogger Jonathan LaBarge. God calls us to love the church, not merely to like it. “Like” implies a consumer mindset… or even a Facebook mindset– “No effort is required on my part; I will just click ‘like’ if something amuses me.”...
The Easter service where Jesus didn’t get out of his tomb
I attended an Easter service this year where the pastor implied that it didn’t really matter whether Jesus actually rose from the dead or not—it was the concept of resurrection that was the important thing. As someone who believes in a literal resurrection, I would...
Vision and mission: again
Vision and mission. Odds are, you’ve read about these two items before. Nearly every book on leadership talks about the importance of knowing your vision and mission. There’s a good reason for that: you can’t know whether you’re successful unless you know what you’re...
Change Orchestration: Element #5 from the Leadership Effectiveness Profile
One essential skill leaders must have is the ability to orchestrate change effectively. Change is not optional in ministry—it’s a given. Things will change: circumstances, demographics, culture. The question is how we respond to external change and how we go about...