7 Helpful Things a Congregation Can Do for Their Minister

Believe it or not ministers need help. They need help from their church leaders and they need help from members. I know ministers often get accused of only working one day a week, but in reality they are on call all the time. If someone gets sick or if someone dies often the first person […]

6 Practices that Encourage Long Term Ministry

Many Christians are concerned about church growth, but instead of focusing on church growth, Christians should first focus on creating and fostering healthy churches that people want to be a part of. No one wants to be a part of a community that is unhealthy or immature. People want to be a part of a […]

Musings

The Gift of Life Ann Voskamp offers a moving post on Gosnell, Steubenville, and the gift of life. This is a must read. Check out What Gosnell and the Gospel Mean to the Brave When Fear Holds Us Back Fear can stunt the growth of a church and keep a Christian from becoming a mature […]

Musings

Are We Practicing Convenient Christianity? In The Elephant in the Auditorium Paula Harrington encourages us to get off the pew and go live out our faith. She writes, Convenient Christianity is forfeiting our responsibility to our Savior by letting the paid preacher be the only proclaimer of God’s goodness in our community. Christ’s love calls […]

7 Ways to Kill a Church

Be Immature – Gripe, complain, nitpick, and criticize others. Find faults with every worship service. Remind the leadership that you could do a better job than they are doing. If someone offends you, get revenge. Spread rumors, gossip, and talk bad about the church to outsiders. Tell inappropriate jokes, preferably ones that are racist or sexist. When […]

David Lipscomb on the Qualifications of Elders

The Holy Spirit has described the qualifications of elders in the first letter to Timothy and in that to Titus. None are perfect in their character. So none will have in perfection these qualifications laid down – that is, all will possess them in a human way. When the Holy Spirit requires qualifications, he specifies them as they […]

Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

As I have been skimming the web today I have been amazed by all the Martin Luther King Jr. quotes that have been posted on Facebook, Twitter, and other places. Some of these quotes I had read many times before and others were brand new to me. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader […]

Systems Theory

Today I was blessed to spend time with Dr. Robert Creech, a professor of Christian ministries at Baylor University. A big thanks to Jim Martin for making this happen. Dr. Creech visited with our group about systems theory and ministry. If you are not familiar with Murray Bowen or family systems theory I would encourage […]