An interesting concept from Jeff Norris: “assum-a-side” — death by assumptions. Assuming we know what’s going on rather than asking leads to a slow death (or sometimes instant martyrdom). Sometimes we think we know what people are thinking,...
If you want to cultivate a thriving church, you must make the care and feeding of your small groups and their ministry leaders a very high priority. The leadership community meeting is a regularly scheduled meeting for this purpose. I often refer to the three...
Today’s entry is from guest blogger Dr. Steven Goodwin. I love reading. It has been a lifetime passion of mine to read, read, and then read some more. I feel a great kinship to Erasmus who once said, “When I get a little money, I buy books. When I get a little more, I...
Every once in a while during consultations, I’ve been tempted to tell churches to put up a banner out front saying, “Go to hell. We don’t care.” (Full disclosure– I only actually said this once.) What circumstances might lead me to want...
One strategy I’ve found to be quite helpful– particularly in the worship area– is to separate the creative planning of the worship service from the actual implementation. You can get your creative thinkers to come up with ideas and the plan the...
So often in planning, people try to focus on the plan itself– the end result. What’s actually much more important is the engagement of people in the discernment process, seeking God, and walking together through the discovery of what God wants them to do....
