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The Greek word we translate as hospitality in the New Testament literally means love of strangers. So how welcome do strangers feel in your weekend services? Do you come off as indifferent…or equally bad, desperate? Hospitality is only one aspect, but you have to take an honest look at the invitational-factor of your services: why are your people not inviting others to their church—especially if the best salesperson is a satisfied customer? I don’t mean your weekend servi

Over the years that we’ve worked with churches, it’s been our observation that of the four critical elements of healthy, effective churches—Integrity (systems, processes, organizational wholeness), Passion (communal commitment to the mission), Servanthood (outward focus), and Imagination (change capacity and innovation)—the most avoided one is Imagination. We define Imagination as the ability of a church (or any organization) to envision possibilities that transcend past and

Many years ago when I was in my twenties, I had a “come-to-Jesus” moment. Previously I had no interest in God and would have considered myself at best an agnostic. But then something strange happened. I began to bump into people who were, well, different. In an intriguing way. They told me bluntly that their lives had been radically changed by Jesus. Kind of in the “I-was-blind-but-now-I-see” way. I visited a Pentecostal church (I had no idea what that meant) sometime after

You’ve no doubt heard of the 3 C’s when building a team or hiring a new staff member. They are often listed in this order: Character, Competency, and Chemistry. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a staff hire or a key volunteer leader joining a team—the 3 C’s are critical. CHARACTER Character is obviously about a person’s integrity as a whole person: do they walk their talk? Some have defined character as who you are when no one is around. Too often we hire people for their compe