Church is important. Gathering for worship is an anchor for anyone who follows Jesus. But when it comes to building faith in your kids, Christian parents can’t rely on the church alone. It’s a mathematical situation: the church has maybe two or three hours with your kids a week and the home has the other … Read more
You don’t want to be a passive parent. You don’t want to be a possessive parent. You want to be a participative parent. I love that image – a participative parent. Engaged, involved, invested. Ready to do whatever it takes to not only enjoy kids while they are kids but help them gain a good … Read more
Several years back, I attended a worship leaders conference and one of speakers, Steve Reynolds, had written a book called, Get Off the Couch: 6 Motivators to Help You Lose Weight and Start Living: A Man’s A.C.T.I.O.N. Plan. I skimmed the book in 2012 and am now re-reading it. After a year and a half … Read more
It looks like the current average tenure of pastors in local churches is about 3.5 years. That may not be long enough to really bring about a change. Longevity in a ministry role isn’t a silver bullet, but it does offer some really good things both to the pastor and the church. Before we get … Read more
“You cannot lead a strong organization without extraordinary clarity.” A. Stanley As church leaders, we are bombarded with “have tos”, “how tos” and “must dos”. There’s no way we can do everything. That’s why clarity is so important. Take heart – You don’t need to do extraordinary things. You need to do ordinary things extraordinarily … Read more
Faith in Christ goes beyond high school. The transition from high school to college is a monumental time in life – the first real opportunity to live out one’s faith. Here’s a bit of practical advice to share with college students in your life. Find a campus group that focuses on Jesus and his word. … Read more
If your community isn’t talking about your church – then do something to get the conversation going. We’re not going for things like, “What’s going on down there anyway?” We don’t want bad publicity. We want things like, “I think the church is hosting that” or “Have you see what First Church did?! Wow!” Every … Read more
In his book, When Work and Family Collide, Andy Stanley comments on how he wishes there were little gauges on his kids. Cars have gauges and they are cut and dried, simple and helpful! You know when the gas is low, when the engine is about to overheat or when a door is ajar. But, … Read more
I recently ran across a cartoon of two guys getting a laptop and internet to a person who was living in the jungle and had obviously never seen anything like it before. The line on the cartoon was, “next month, we will be back with antidepressants.” We don’t want to focus on the negative, but … Read more
Do you use leisure well? I ran across this phrase in the book Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. It’s an intriguing concept – to do well with our leisure time. I think the push for Sabbath, both in scripture and from respected leaders in ministry, is a form of putting emphasis on leisure time. … Read more