Thank you for making November a great month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s great staying connected with you through social media and hearing that these articles have been helpful. So, thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!
There are probably a lot of reasons a Church Staff Member might leave a church. Some of them are valid; some of them are not so valid. But if you’re a Church Staff Member and you’re considering leaving your church, this post gives you three great places to start in the conversation.
It seems like everywhere you turn lately some national church leader is writing about the bleak future of the US Church due to younger generations leaving. Well, recently I spent some time at a place that made me really hopeful about the future of the church in America. And it reminded me of “5 Things Young Leaders Need.”
What if there were early warning signs (flashing lights on the dashboard) that helped indicate that trouble was ahead? In my experience Coaching Church Leaders and Consulting with Churches across the country I’ve seen the following 10 indicators of an impending decline over and over again.
While I’ve read my share of leadership books, wading through all of that can simply be exhausting. When it comes to determining if someone is a leader or not I prefer to start with a simple question…
Every single person reading this article has a natural tendency when it comes to the tension between people and projects. Some of us are “people oriented,” while others are more “project oriented.” You know which one you are and so does everyone else around you. But which one is more important, the people or the project? The answer is, “Yes.” The project is for the people and the people are for the project. God has given his Church (people) a clear mission (project). This post will give you 4 ways that leaders manage the tension between people and projects.
In a time of year where most churches are finalizing budgets I thought it might be helpful to share some indicators that I’ve observed in churches that are financially overextended.
If you’ve ever played on or been around a winning team you know how much fun it can be. You also know that winning teams are rare, only one team wins the championship each year. You also know that winning teams don’t just happen on accident. They’re built with great intentionality. So as you’re in the process of mixing the right ingredients to build a great team, make sure you mix in the 2 most important ingredients to building a winning team…
The other day the consulting team at the Unstuck Group was having a conversation about how to help churches get unstuck when it comes to the disciple-making ministry at their church. In particular we were discussing Small Groups. In the conversation Chris Surratt who runs SmallGroup.com and serves as a Ministry Consultant with the Unstuck Group mentioned 6 great questions that churches should be talking about if they want to have a successful small group ministry.
In August, 2012, Leadership Network released a report stating that over 5,000 churches are now multisite churches (churches that meet in more than one location for worship). It’s a growing trend that first began with mega-churches, but has now expanded to churches of all sizes. One of the natural tendencies in a multisite church setting is to drift towards having one “main campus” that is driving the ship. It makes sense, because at some point there was an original campus and it is strategic to minimize redundancy and the duplication of efforts when possible. But, if not careful, the original campus can quickly be seen as the “Mothership,” a corporate headquarters making policies and calling all the shots. This can lead to a breakdown in unity through unhealthy competition, frustration and even resentment.
All of us have been in planning meetings before with a team that seemed to have had a break through moment. You know, that moment when everyone says, “Yes! That’s exactly the direction we need to move, and that’s exactly how we need to get there from here!” There was energy, excitement and unity as everyone left the meeting. But the more time that passed after the meeting dismissed the more that energy that was there faded and the less movement towards actualizing the plan took place. In fact a large majority of planning meetings don’t actually provoke much real change in most churches and organizations. Here are 4 reasons why many of your plans aren’t really getting you anywhere…
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Studies show that churches who launch new groups experience growth. But as many of us have seen firsthand, launching groups without a clear strategy that fits your church’s overall strategy is a recipe for chaos and disappointing results.
