The current crisis in a unique time for pastors. Usually crises are experienced on a personal or group level, but almost never on a ubiquitous level. When folk experience crisis situations we try to help them draw down of the spiritual capital God has accumulated in their lives. A crisis is not the optimal time …
Some words of reflection about a pastoral ministry philosophy that is firm, but gentle; and does not come communicate disappointment and demand. Passion for growth of the kingdom can result as God’s people being seen as the means to implement a vision, rather than being the sphere in which the pastor serves. From Peter Bogert: …
Something that I’ve become conscious of over the last couple of years is the link between growth in congregational size and change in leadership style. Increasing beyond certain numbers of people in a congregation is sometimes portrayed as a ‘barrier’. What is being identified in that is that at certain sizes a group of people …
In a post about leadership Ed Stetzer identifies a number of areas that he describes as mature leadership. On of these has to do with accountability. Mature leaders purposefully set up structures for accountability and then seek and receive genuine accountability within those structures. They understand that it is easy to be drawn into inappropriate …
I grew up with a church system that had two bodies, one tasked with spiritual and the other tasked with temporal matters. It is not a helpful distinction in so far as everything is spiritual and practical. At its worst the ‘temporal’ body can use its power to veto the plans of the ‘spiritual’ body, …
Dan Hotchkiss observes that churches of a certain size tend toward staff-centered leadership structures. The first advantage of that structure is that they usually depend on one leader, and any disruption to that leader can have an inordinately disruptive effect on the organisation. He then points out a second, more philosophical disadvantage that resonates with …
Reading this post by Dan Rockwell provided a moment of clarity on the difference between feedback and instruction. Good feedback energises performance, it doesn’t discourage effort. In a recent workshop, I invited a participant to knock a small box off a stool using a cookie. She stood with her back to the stool and tossed …
