Tension: 1) The act or process of stretching something tight. 2) The interplay of conflicting elements. Is it possible to package authenticity? Can you manufacture a sense of honesty? Do excellence and realness ever really happen at the same time? Why do so many church leader types seem so plastic?...

Tension: 1) The act or process of stretching something tight. 2) The interplay of conflicting elements. Tech: Video screens, websites, email, social media, kids check in systems, lighting, sound reinforcement, podcasts, web streams, efficient systems, evites, invites, devices . . . everywhere we look the modern church is permeated with...

So this week we've been chatting about the value of saying thanks. Make sure to drop by the other posts to see the discussion so far! Phil Thurman from Lifebridge Church in Madison, MS does some great stuff when it comes to thanking his team.  During their quarterly leadership development...

The paradox is real.  There is a group of people who are vitally important to the weekly operation of your ministry but often are over looked when it comes to thanking.  I think if we all took 5 minutes this week and reached out this group of people to simply...

So this week we are talking about the lost art of thanking. How are you taking time to foster a culture of saying "thank you" to people in your ministry? Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern How do you thank the people who donate to your ministry?...

How do you take time to thank people in your ministry? Or are you of the school of thought that your people should be thanking you for allowing them to be in the ministry? (admit it ... we all know people like that!) Taking time to simply say thank you...

So we've been talking this week about who your team looks at when they think about who they want to be like.  Which organizations are you benchmarking your church agianst?  Rather than comparing against "Acrossthetown Baptist Church" or the latest McChurch trend why not find more creative organizations to point...

Yesterday we started a conversation about benchmarking.  The organizations you are learning from and focusing on set the pace for your team.  What if we stopped looking at what the church down the street (or across the country for that matter) and attempted to find other "benchmarks" for our leadership...

When you and your team think about who they are attempting to become like who are they measuring themselves against? Which organizations is your team learning from?  Who are they attempting to emulate? If you are in leadership in a local church you have a benchmarking issue.  We have chosen...

Hey!  The first words of a blog should probably grab your attention - right?  Wow - the pressure.  How am I doing so far?  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Rich Birch and I work in the wild world of church stuff.  This post is suppose to give you...