strategy

Why does Jimmy Fallon sit behind a desk? Do we really believe that is his office and all these people are coming to see him? Why does he have that coffee cup and pens on the desk? Is he really drinking coffee and writing memos to his staff? For that matter...

Almost a year ago we started talking about doing a "40 Day Bible Challenge" as a leadership team. The big idea was to ask our people to read through the entire New Testament in the two months leading up to Easter 2013. Our goal was to have 3,000 people who...

By the time a church has packaged its learning into a conference or a "how to" book, their innovative years of ministry are behind them. Over the years I've become more and more partial to spending a weekend visiting lesser-known churches. I've found these weekends far more valuable for learning than...

This week I've had the privilege of traveling to Nicaragua with Living Water International (LWI).  We've partnered with them in variety of clean water projects.  We were in Nicaragua seeing some project areas that we might end up serving in the coming  years. I was humbled again to interact with some of the...

I'm afraid I'm not uncomfortable enough with worship music. I don't want to fumble the pass of the church to the next generation. In my early ministry years I was a part of a church in the midst of a "worship war".  One side was fired up because they believed that...

Quality management of the information about the people that attend your church is mission critical.  Loss data on someone is a loss relationship.  Mismanagement in this area ends up damaging trust with your people.  One of the ways we serve our people is by handling their information with great care. I'm...

According to a recent Pew Study, 69% of internet users utilize social media on a regular basis.  The same reported showed that 92% of internet users aged 18-29 used social media regularly. The age of living our private lives in the public sphere is upon us. How are you leveraging social media...

Have you ever been somewhere different for the first time?  In the past I've encouraged pastors to go play Bingo for an evening to give them a sense of what First Time Guests feel when they come to their church.  At Bingo there is a series of social norms, funny...

Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference. - Hugh Prather Does your ministry regularly seek out feedback from the people it's serving?  How are you looking for ways to learn from your...