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.
What does your church offer for training or equipping the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12 ESV)? Have you ever asked that question as a church leader or pastor? Here are some ideas about who needs regular training and about what.
I will never forget an initial coaching session over the phone with an ethnic pastor. I was born and raised in the US and he was born and raised in a Middle-eastern location where Christians are frequently persecuted. I had known him for about a year and wanted to establish a coaching relationship to help him in his ministry. The purpose of my first coaching call to him was to establish a relationship with him as his coach. I also wanted to explain what our coaching conversations would be all about. After our conversation, it dawned on me that sometimes, coaching ministry leaders will not work, at least initially. My story and commentary may help you understand more about when coaching may not work.
When it comes to ministry, two is much better than one. Even the Bible affirms this truth. Read this blog for some ideas on how to find and work with a partner in ministry.
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.
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.
In the New Testament, the use of pastor, overseer, and elder are equivalent as the terms are used synonymously. However, the functions of this ministry or office may differ depending on how the individual uses his gifts in ministry. Read this blog to find out more about how the lead pastor works with the other elders in the church.
When it comes to social media, pastors need to be not just good but excellent stewards of the use of their time and use of social media. This is true both of personal social media accounts and also your church or ministry accounts. In this blog, I will attempt to suggest some guidelines for pastors.
This evening I received in my inbox an evaluation to fill out for my local gym. I try to go to this local workout hangout three times a week, at least thatâ°°s my goal. Unlike many surveys of such kind, I chose to let the gym know of my experiences this time. As I reflect on this opportunity, it made me wonder why local churches donâ°°t do that for those who visit or attend. My reflections turned into a blog, so here goes.
The Micro Church Movement (MCM) is a relatively new development to the USA and Canada. Generally speaking, it refers to a growing number of small and simple expressions of missional churches that may or may not be connected to a larger, more traditional church or a network of micro churches. The number of micro churches is growing and many formerly churched, disaffiliated, and unchurched people are part of this movement. That's very encouraging but I have many questions about this new movement. This blog is the first of two blogs that discuss some unanswered questions that I have about micro churches.
I like lists so here's another one. This one is for church members who are working on trying to find and call a new pastor in a church that's in-between lead pastors.