At Christmas we celebrate the coming of Jesus in human flesh. As an infant, he was at his most defenseless. Jesus entered an insecure situation, where his parents were poor and traveling in an unfamiliar land. He entered a fallen world—one where a powerful king was...
Pastors often face frustration when the board seeks to micromanage and things get bogged down. So often there is confusion in churches over the role of the pastor, the staff, and the board. Frequently people are trying to play the wrong position for their role. John...
We create action plans and then work through them. But how do we know if we’ve been successful? We need to evaluate what was accomplished afterwards. And how do we evaluate that? Below are some questions you can use. Even better, if you know you’ll be...
Do you have a split focus? As my friend Neil Cole says, “First things first. One thing at a time. Always one more thing.” That middle concept of “one thing at a time” can be one of the most difficult for us. We live in an age of multi-tasking and constant...
When I was a senior pastor, I used to do formal annual reviews with each member of my staff. I began by giving them an evaluation form that they were to fill out before our meeting. It covered these categories: List your areas of responsibility, along with a rating of...
As I reflect on my coaching and consulting work, I can see that virtually everyone has good intentions. People don’t lack for good intentions. We want to see good things happen. We want to see people get into discipleship relationships. We want to see people...
