Blog

This week, my wife, Marty, and I had the honor of attending a church planter's retreat sponsored by the Converge Northwest District and held at the beautiful Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center on the rugged Pacific coast in northern Oregon. Read on to discover just a small amount of what was seen and heard at that relaxed gathering. Maybe you and your church can learn from my observations.

A recent poll states that 38% of pastors are tempted to quit and leave the ministry as their chosen profession. The long-lasting Covid pandemic is largely to blame, but there may be other reasons. Let's talk about a few.
What can you expect when you pray? You may want an immediate answer or you may desire an answer that God will give you just because you want it. But let's face the reality that God may answer your prayer differently than the way you think or want. Without wanting to limit God, may I suggest the following three ways God answers our prayers as our loving Heavenly Father.
So I have been serving as a transitional pastor for the past twelve years. It has been challenging but rewarding, hard work, but worth it. Now at the age of 75, I am doing some transitioning myself. Read all about it in the blog.
After many years of experiencing ministry leadership and watching others do the same, I have come to the conclusion that pastors, church planters, and other ministry leaders operate in zones of ministry – some good, some are not so good, and some may be neutral. The following are some of the zones that you may find yourself in as you do ministry.
Most church leaders benefit greatly from coaching. Coaching can be a big help in bringing out the best in you. I can also be a way of helping you seek and find God's will in your thinking, planning, and execution of what the Lord has given you to accomplish, for He has prepared his plan to be worked out in your life as a believer (Eph. 2:10). So, how can you get the best out of coaching? This blog may give you some direction for answering this question.
Most churches forget to neglect to do some important things as they go about ministry. Here is a list of ten to jog your memory.
Have you ever been to a business meeting and after 20 minutes wondered why you are even there? Are others who are there thinking the same thing. If your answer to these questions is yes, then you need some help. The following suggestions can increase the meeting's effectiveness.
Sometimes pastors just need to chill out and laugh at some of their sermon mistakes. Here is a list of 10 preaching bloopers that I'm sure you and I have never done.
As a former church planter, coach, and trainer of church planters, and assessment team member in several church planter assessment centers, I highly value the need and importance of a CPAC. Here are 10 reasons why every aspiring church planter needs to go through the experience of a church planter assessment center.
This week I'm camped out in a hotel room waiting for a Converge Church Planter Assessment Center to begin tomorrow morning. I'll be one of many assessors on a team to help the candidates discern God's will for their first or next ministry. The center will be assessing 10 couples over a three-and-a-half-day period. I'm a veteran assessment team member having served in seven of them a while back, and I've been looking forward to another go at it. As I reflect on beginning the experience again tomorrow, I want to share with you a major observation - a ministry assessment experience should be required for all seminary students. Here's why I say that.