Relational Evangelism Even When It’s Tough
Years ago I was the president of my high school class. I was from a non-religious family where church was not even on the radar. But there was this kid in my class, Doug, whose dad was the pastor at the evangelical church in town. We were friends and nearly…
10 MORE Things I Would Change
I left my tenure as a local church pastor over three years ago to become the district superintendent of EDA Move. A few weeks back I wrote about some things I would change if I were a pastor again. Now, you’ve heard the statement that goes, “experience is the best…
10 Things I Would Change
It’s been over three years since I left the role of lead pastor and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on things I did while I was in that role. There are some things I wouldn’t change for anything and there are plenty of others that I wish…
The Movement Hasn’t Passed You By
The movement of Jesus Christ hasn’t passed you by. You may not be a superstar – who cares? There’s only supposed to be One! This is the movement of Jesus Christ. How dare we pastors or worship leaders or authors hijack His glory. How dare anybody think that we’re going…
Have we outsmarted Jesus?
Have you ever considered how some of the ways today’s respected leaders suggest we shouldn’t do ministry are precisely the ways Jesus did ministry? In some ways, it seems we’ve outsmarted Jesus. Take a look at the conferences and literature that are intended to guide the American Church. Our American…
5 Reasons Why Leaders Should Embrace Consistent Change
For most of us, change is hard; for others, it’s downright excruciating! As people who are constantly being changed into the image of Christ, change should be something Christians embrace and even pursue when we understand that it’s for good cause. Yet, when we’re honest, we know that even good…
Ultimate Accountability: Living In Light of the Painful Fall of Media Giants
Americans have recently witnessed the fall of some media giants. Wow, these stories have been disheartening to say the least. Amidst my sadness over these stories, however, I’m actually glad about a couple of things: I’m glad that some of the wounded women have found their voices and mustered up…
7 Reasons To Bring Back The Invitation
I believe an invitation for people to respond to the preacher’s message should be given every time the Word is preached in a corporate gathering. From personal observation and from what I’m reading lately, it seems to me that a growing number of pastors disagree with me. Here’s a recent blog…
5 Preaching Sins
For those who have a high view of scripture and take seriously the call to preach and teach the Word, we are standing on a sure foundation. However, there are still some of what I call “preacher sins” that are way too common and MUST be avoided: 1. LAZINESS “Those…
WHAT GOD CAN DO
A friend and mentor of mine is Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Though he has been in high demand for conferences and events around the world for decades, he routinely hosts small gatherings of 25-50 pastors and leaders at their location on Smith Street. On a couple of occasions he invited me and…
Great Leadership
My good friend planted a church 12 years ago that now has four locations and averages more than 5000 people weekly. They have baptized more than 300 people per year for the last several years. They write, produce and record worship albums that I love. And now they have launched…
CARPE DIEM!
The other day a man expressed to me that I must have my hands full as a District Superintendent. He had heard a couple of pastoral burnout and failure statistics that left him incredulous. He asked me if the stats were indeed true (sadly, they were) and then asked me what…