Biblical Preaching May Not Be What You Think It is
I love to preach. It is energizing…challenging…and a deeply spiritual event. There really isn’t anything like it. What can I say? It is special. But what if there was more to preaching than what we generally think of it in terms of something that is done by a single person on Sunday? What if you […]
Time to Sound the Alarm! We Have a Discipleship Crisis in the American Church
This crisis is on two fronts. 1 – Failing to Mature Existing Disciples: How does a disciple mature? How do they go from milk to solid food (1 Cor 3:1-2)? I believe our assumptions of what creates a mature disciple are faulty and left untested, therefore, they perpetuate without question. If you think attendance and […]
The Three Biblical Keys to Kingdom Growth Are Already In Your Church
And here they are… 1 – Prayer. Prayer movements always precede kingdom movements. The largest movements in Christian history have always started with fervent prayer. Movements in Acts began in prayer (Acts 1 led to Acts 2, Acts 10 starts with Peter in prayer, Acts 13’s prayer and fasting led to a missionary journey). Anyone […]
A Startling Number on Church Growth!
Do you have any idea what percentage of growing churches are growing from evangelism and making disciples? Go ahead and get a number in your head…put it in the comments before you go on. I will put the number at the end of the article so you can’t peek! The number is abysmally low. The […]
Why Some Christians and Churches Never Get Well
Our culture is obsessed with pathology. The moment you feel a symptom you rush to WebMD to find out that you think you have some rare South American fungus that is stopping up your intestines. Anyone who studies abnormal psychology walks away thinking they have a dozen psychological disorders. No one goes to the doctor […]
Tips for Recording Sermons for Livestream, Facebook, and YouTube
With so many preachers now preaching to empty rooms while we are all maintaining distance during the COVID-19 pandemic I would like to share a few ideas to help you get up and running to record and stream your services to continue to get a weekly message from the Bible to your congregation. Video – […]
Hopeful About the Future of Christianity? Here Is How You Can Grow Your Hope…
I recently heard an older Christian say he is the most hopeful he has ever been about Christianity in his entire life and ministry. That is an idea that I have been reflecting on ever since. I am not sure I would have said that. But given the fact that this Christian is older and […]
Critical Ministry Shift – From Information & Teaching to Skills & Coaching
There is a shift in my ministry philosophy I wish I had figured out years ago. It is a shift from disseminating information through teaching/lecture and the teaching of skills through coaching. This is so obvious it would seem it doesn’t even need to be said and yet it took me to 40 to come […]
How Healthy Are Ministers? I Ran the Numbers.
As a minister it is important to me to understand the potential ramifications of how ministry affects my health and the health of my family. I ran the numbers on this in 2017 and want to share a few significant findings with you here. I assessed health in multiple areas and then ran correlations and […]
Why Are We In Decline? What Appears to Be a Math Problem is Actually a Spiritual Problem
Imagine the AAA Widget Company. AAA Widget was started 80 years ago by an energetic team of entrepreneurs. They had a vision and they executed the vision for 50 years with excellence. The problem today is that they haven’t added a new customer in the last 30 years. The only way to add customers is […]