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

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?

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...

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

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,...