Thank you for making the month of July a great month on Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s fun to see the comments and interaction through social media each month about the content and articles that are posted here! It’s always good to hear that the content is helpful! So thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top 5 Posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!

#1 Why I’m Still Married After 17 Years

Lisa and I recently celebrated 17 years of marriage in July! To tell the truth, there a lot of people I should be thanking for their investment into my wife and I. And there are a lot of reasons we’re still married today, but here are a couple of practices that have helped us get where we are. So in no particular order, here they are. Hope they help.

#2 It’s Not My Job

“It’s not my job,” is more than an excuse. It’s one of the most destructive cultural statements you’ll ever hear in any church or organization. Whenever you hear this phrase popping up you’re sure to find the following destructive behaviors lurking beneath the surface.

#3 Taming the Ministry Dragon

Everyone has problems. If your church is in decline you’ve got problems. If your church is growing, you’ve got problems. If your church is plateaued, you’ve got problems. Everyone’s got problems. If you think the guy on the other side of the fence doesn’t have problems, you’re mistaken; he’s just shoveling more…well…fertilizer. The real difference rests in how you respond to those problems. Respond poorly and it will eat you alive. Respond well and you just may be a leader. Here are three memorable ways people respond to problems.

#4 When to Hire from the Inside

At some point every church faces the question: “Do we hire from inside or do we go outside to make this next hire?” There’s a grocery list of items that can factor into making a good decision. But the following two principles outweigh everything else when you’re hiring from within the organization or church.

#5 6 Steps to Creating a Church that High Performers Love to Work at

In Church-World you may not have the ability to purely attract and keep high performers based on pay. While you should do your best to pay high performers what they’re worth, they aren’t just in it for the pay. Check out this link for more on how much you should be paying your staff. After spending the last 12 years on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nations leading churches here are 6 observations I’ve consistently seen regarding creating a church where high performers love to work.