Why we plant churches

Why we plant churches

Church Planting

Note: This blog entry is excerpted and adapted from my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Church Planting Journey. We’ll be posting excerpts about once a month here and we’d love to hear feedback from you. We hope you are getting as excited about it as...
The spiritual heritage of place

The spiritual heritage of place

Missional

God has a dream for the place where you live and minister. You are joining a story already in progress– the story of what God is already doing in your city or town. Study the spiritual heritage of where you are living. I live in Los Angeles– the city of...
Definitions: What makes a church a church?

Definitions: What makes a church a church?

New Church Planting

Instead of the tangible things we usually thing of that make up a church– a full-time pastor, a large group meeting space, music and a sermon at a Sunday morning gathering, legal incorporation– let’s think less tangibly. Let’s think along the lines of...
When less is more

When less is more

Leadership

I’ve recently read a couple of fascinating blog entries by Greg McKeown, CEO of THIS Inc., a leadership and strategy design agency headquartered in Silicon Valley. I wanted to highlight a couple of his ideas here and direct you to his blog. Although written for the...

What do you stand for?

Leadership

“…any organization also needs a commitment to values and their constant reaffirmation, as a human body needs vitamins and minerals. There has to be something ‘this organization stands for,’ or else it degenerates into disorganization, confusion, and...
The effective meeting

The effective meeting

Leadership

Part of a series inspired by Peter Drucker, an important mentor of mine Meetings can be a life-drain on churches. Too many meetings burn our people out. An even bigger problem than too many meetings are bad meetings. What makes a bad meeting vs. a good meeting? Here...

Pre-empting your mid-life crisis

Coaching

Everyone knows about the cultural phenomenon known as the mid-life crisis. It can result in anything from a sports car to an affair to a sudden career change. What is a mid-life crisis? It’s a forced evaluation—usually the result of circumstances beyond one’s control...

Principle #2: Living with purpose

Missional

Jesus wasn’t just wandering around the Holy Land aimlessly.  He was walking with a purpose.  We too, as we seek to live incarnationally as he did, need to walk with a purpose.  That doesn’t mean we’re in a hurry or that we’re not relational.  Quite the contrary,...