When a Leader Steps Down
When a church goes through our Pathway or Inventory program for revitalization, it often includes a site visit from one of our team...
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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...
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