Discipleship Pathways for Kids
When it comes to discipling children, there is no limit to the thoughts, patterns, and opinions you can find online. You can probably ask around your immediate community and get another few dozen different answers. So how do we disciple today’s children in our churches, and how do we know…
How to Keep the Momentum Going
We just (re)launched a new ministry for young adults called Momentum. It’s been exciting to see God not only bringing young adults to our church, but also raising them up to take initiative to nurture a community of other young adults to have a desire to know Jesus and make…
Rethinking Women’s Ministry
When I sit and ponder what my life has looked like, I remember all the crazy and hard times I have walked through. When I was three, I saw my two-year-old brother fall off a three-story fire escape head first. He is still alive today. My father struggled with drugs…
A Simple Pattern For Discipleship
I have had the exact same conversation happen exactly the same way perhaps 30 or 40 times. It always starts the same way: ‘Jesus tells us every Christian to make disciples!’ Often the person out at breakfast with me heartily agrees, it is hard not to. But then all the…
Keeping Your Eyes on the Future During a Challenging Present
“I regret that I didn’t have time to write you a shorter letter.” I’ve seen that quote attributed to everyone from Blaise Pascal to Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin. Whoever said it, the moral is that brevity is best and succinctness is sublime. I’ll do my best to heed their…
How to Pastor the Political Crazies
In just a few seconds on social media, pastors can discover a great deal about their church members. We can learn all about their kids’ accomplishments, what they had for dinner last night, and even, if you care to know (I do not), how intuitive their cats happen to be.…
The Value of Ministry In Small Places
I have heard from many small church pastors that they feel forgotten and overlooked. My own journey has given me the opportunity to be a part of several small church ministries.I have had the unique opportunity to shepherd a small church that grew and planted several other Free Churches and…
You Only Have Three and Three
From the time someone checks out a church on its website, puts the address into their GPS, and makes the trek to attend that church for the first time, a lot of anticipation has been built. Perhaps they are church surfing. Perhaps they have been burned by a previous church.…
3 Questions To Help You Structure Your Ministry For Success
In my time as a ministry leader, I have had successes, but I have also had failures. My biggest disaster in ministry occurred when I was leading an event planning team. One of my team members had voiced their desire to focus their attentions elsewhere and I just didn’t recognize…
Worship In The Time Of Covid
What a strange time to be a worship leader! At the time I’m writing this, most of us are heading into our fifth weekend since most states, and eventually the Federal Government, shut down all large gatherings and changed everything we thought we knew about doing ministry. At this point,…
Are We Bigger Than A Building?
Pastoring in this pandemic has been challenging for me and I have personally been praying that God would give me a real sense of what we call fellowship. What I have come to realize is that I have always thought fellowship and the Church was all about being in a building. I…
Simplifying Church Organizational Structures
There are few experiences in life more satisfying, fulfilling, and joyous than serving the Lord on a church leadership team where: Each member respects and trusts every other member. There is no confusion over responsibilities and roles, and each person works diligently to uphold their part. There is a…