elementals: quick reads to sharpen your leadership edge.

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Dec 6, 2022
2 min

To Be Vulnerable...or Not?

A few years ago a friend of mine stepped into the senior pastor role at a large church after the previous successful pastor left under...

Nov 28, 2022
3 min

Dogpaddling with Dolphins

I’ve been on both sides of a lead pastor transition. Years before serving in the lead pastor role at our church, everyone on...

Oct 4, 2022
3 min

Let's Talk About Church Consultants...

Yeah, I know, I know. It’s a tacky mashup of Pixar and Peanuts. But the point is: do we really need “church consultants”? I have to admit...

Sep 6, 2022
3 min

VBS…an Emergent Problem?

The Integrity value is one of four key elements we’ve identified as being absolutely essential for the health and effectiveness of any...

Aug 24, 2022
3 min

The Problem With Traditionalism

The owner of a Chevron station in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle got tired of plastering advertising deals on his sign. Instead,...

Aug 3, 2022
3 min

How Americans View The Church

The phrase “Perception is reality” is generally attributed to a controversial political consultant back in the 1980s. That alone sheds...

Jul 12, 2022
3 min

4 Types of Succession Plans

In an earlier post, I explored a bare-bones chronological overview for thinking about leadership succession as it related to senior or...

Apr 5, 2022
2 min

Hiring The Right Staff

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,...

Mar 7, 2022
2 min

Bringing Dreams to Life

Nothing should thrill a leader more than overhearing a volunteer describing the mission of the organization in a way that sounds as if...

Feb 22, 2022
3 min

Change Management 101

Years ago we went through a very difficult season at our church. After a time of crazy growth, we had a number of people leave as a...

Feb 15, 2022
3 min

Reconstruction After Deconstruction

One of the more sobering passages for me in the New Testament is the story of John the baptizer’s painful deconstruction. Please apply...

Feb 8, 2022
3 min

The Challenge of the Easy

Any form of movement requires energy. Energy, however, is hard to come by. As biological creatures, human beings will naturally seek to...

Jan 25, 2022
2 min

Existential Ekklesia Angst

In our work with churches, we primarily assist with what we call “organizational discipleship”. It’s the idea that pastors and church...

Nov 10, 2021
2 min

How Is Your Mission?

In our work with churches in assessing the four key elements of healthy organizations, the first one we typically look at is the...

Nov 2, 2021
2 min

Are You In Survival Mode?

Lots of folks have been questioning what church life and ministry should look like post-Covid. To do that, I think it would first be best...

Oct 21, 2021
3 min

Do You Have the Right Problems?

In his landmark book Corporate Lifecycles: How Organizations Grow and Die and What to Do about It, Dr. Ichak Adizes laid out...

Jul 20, 2021
2 min

Change. Or End Up With A Subdivision.

My father-in-law was a remarkable man: a colonel in the Army in the same headquarters in England that General Eisenhower worked from...

Jul 6, 2021
2 min

Life After Pastoring...

I was recently invited on a podcast with William Vanderbloemen. I wasn’t completely sure what the interview was going to be about, but it...

Jun 22, 2021
2 min

Why Is Change So Dang Hard?

Sociologists have noted the unprecedented “acceleration of change” happening in our world.. Information is instantaneous. People change...

May 11, 2021
2 min

Spiritual Vitality...and Age

Years ago we identified 4 critical elements all healthy churches practiced, regardless of size or stripe: Integrity: systems, processes,...