I’m a massive fan of J.S. Bach. Arguably the greatest composer who ever lived, his music fills the room whenever I write. Bach was a man of faith who famously signed each of his works […]

Churches, face unique challenges in their mission to serve their communities, foster spiritual growth, and maintain operational effectiveness. As an Executive Pastor you play a crucial role in guiding your congregation toward growth and effectiveness. […]

Your decisions create the story of your life. And while nobody plans to complicate their life with bad decisions, far too many people have no plan to make good decisions.

Andy Stanley in Better Decisions, Fewer […]

William Vanderbloemen’s latest book, Be the Unicorn: Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest, is a goldmine of information. He gets right at what the best leaders do and how they think. […]

One of my recent ECFA research projects involves leadership integrity. For David Fletcher’s in-person XP-Seminar in February, I surveyed the attendees, the majority of whom are the equivalent of Executive Pastor, with 1 in 3 […]

Public confidence in nonprofits is declining to dangerous lows. Consider, for example, Gallup’s 2022 study on Confidence in Institutions, which reports that trust in the church has declined to an all-time low. Just 31% […]

A nationwide survey of more than 700 church leaders conducted by Church Law & Tax showed that nearly one-third have served in congregations that suffered from some form of financial misconduct. Half occurred within […]

My title may seem a little off-putting, perhaps even negative. Why do I need a guardrail? Or better, what is a guardrail for a pastor? This brings another question, If our church incorporated guardrails, what […]

I don’t have time to teach someone else how to do it. It will be quicker if I just do it myself. Chances are you’ve used one of those excuses when you’ve taken on a task that […]

I love sports. I am an over-the-top Chicago Cubs fan. My license plate says Cubzwin. My three children all played collegiate sports. My wife and I played collegiate sports. I’m in four fantasy football leagues—that’s at […]

Welcome back to part two of a two part series where I lay out the final five (of ten) principles that form a path for leading in uncertain times, whether that be a pandemic, blizzard, […]

The understatement of the century is that the world has changed. And we are all continuing to live right in the middle of this shift. We are being forced to create and adapt new ways […]

It goes without saying that 2020 has brought an abundance of challenges for ministry leaders. We’ve had to take on challenges we never would have expected and might not have been necessarily prepared for. Then, […]

No one could have imagined as we began the new year the challenges we would be facing in our ministries, in our relationships, our finances, and our personal lives caused by the “invisible enemy”—Covid-19.

Under the […]

Anxious to get your church back to normal? You could miss the most effective ministry season of your life.

Dumpster Day? Wait, what? I wondered to myself. Sitting in on a Zoom meeting with the leadership team […]

Vision is more than one short statement. Your church needs that short statement but it also needs much more. The vision statement is the tip of the iceberg. Vision statements set out far-reaching goals and values. […]

One of the CEOs I coach leads an organization with almost five hundred employees. In a video call with him this week, he began by explaining how he spent two days calculating when the organization […]

What will it take for your church to become a healthier church? Given the realities of your particular ministry setting, how will you begin that process? If you were to start that process today, what […]

February 14, 2018

Hey Doc … This is a big one. I have some obligations next week at church and they can’t be moved. But now I just received an exciting out-of-town invitation with an important […]

Few Christian leaders set out to promote or speak falsehood. I believe that falsehood among Christian leaders comes about more often by omission than commission (what is allowed to remain undone versus what is done […]

Amazon continues to be a force in our culture. In the run up to Christmas, they sold 426 items per second! I just finished reading Brad Stone’s fascinating study of Amazon called The Everything Store. […]

Do you want change? Most people will say they don’t. If they do, generally it’s limited to changing a small section of their lives. When it comes to our organizations, as well as our careers, change […]

Moving from the rural Midwest to Southern California changes your definition of “normal.” When the move includes connecting with a church that’s twice the size of the town you moved from, the redefinition demands a […]

My top two spiritual gifts are leadership and administration, so the subject of organization is something I love and gravitate toward. If you have the spiritual […]

Each of us has big things we want to accomplish. At the end of the day, some of us accomplish those things. Others do not. Why? It all boils down to alignment. Simply put, alignment […]

Emerging research tells us that successful turnaround pastors differ from their colleagues in temperament and emotional intelligence. The data imply an easy way for pastors to avoid the many challenges of a growing church. All […]

First of all, I believe momentum is usually a byproduct of great vision … and great vision needs momentum to move forward. There is definitely a relationship between vision and momentum. For context, I define […]

Recently, I was talking to Kevin Peck, the Lead Pastor of Austin Stone Church. Back in 2005, they were a church of about 800 in worship. Now they have six campuses with about 6,000 or […]

In The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber recognizes three primary roles in any successful business: the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. He describes these roles but is more concerned that small businesses fulfill all three and […]

The question we all have as we lead is how can we make a lasting impact. What I have learned over the years is that to make a lasting impact, you have to learn how to […]

I think everybody has a certain perception of symphony orchestra directors, especially the top-end professionals. People probably view them as suave, sophisticated, jet-setters who have a pretty cushy job (yeah, sure, that’s me!)

While that may […]

Change is hard. No, I mean real change is really hard! Oh sure, we all dream, imagine or wish that something in our lives will be different or better tomorrow; but taking the steps necessary […]

You know the feeling. Something is wrong. You’re the leader. You really should say something about it. But confronting someone is the last thing you feel like doing. You consider your options. Perhaps you can […]

Your ministry plans for the fall are either in full “implementation mode” or you are up to your upper thighs in alligators! As I write, our church is in the midst of two weeks of […]

In America we have the popular maxim, Change or Die. Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun, showing our popular American phrase has its roots in Greek antiquity. Heraclitus said, “Everything changes, πάντα χωρεῖ.” […]

In the early ’90s, I was shepherding a small Baptist church in rural Canada. In those days, being single, I lived with various families in the community. One family who owned their own meat production business […]

What would you say your most valuable asset is? For most leaders, the answer is (of course) their people. But as “twentysomethings” share the boardroom with Vietnam veterans, assumptions fly about what the other person […]

Remember the old Beatle’s song—All You Need Is Love?” Who knew then that John Lennon and the rest of the Beatles were all over what the Bible has to say to us as leaders? As Executive […]

John Maxwell says that everything rises or falls on leadership. Let’s test that idea on the topic of evangelism and see if it’s true. I have worked alongside pastors and ministry leaders my entire adult career. It […]

Churches just might be the least clarified organizations in our society; I believe one of the reasons is a lack of understanding among these three types of leadership—vision, management, and governance. Recently, God has given me numerous opportunities […]

Change—it really is hard. There are some words in church that are just inflammatory. Uttering the word “change” is the church equivalent of yelling shark at the beach. One of the reasons may be that many times, […]

In Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter underlines the importance of strategic planning for leaders when he writes, “If you want to make a difference as a leader, you’ve got to make time for strategic planning.” […]

Warning! Danger! Hazards ahead! God at work! Live at your own risk! Risk. The only way we can know God. You see it from one end of the Bible to the other. Look at the names in the Hebrews 11 Hall […]

It’s that time of year again when, as a church staff, we prayerfully consider how we are going to take our vision as a church to the next level—how will we divide and allocate our […]

Julie was an endearing, young missionary who had a fantastic ministry that I was dying to learn about. Julie came into my office and was on the verge of tears. I asked her what was […]

Volunteers needed, Men’s Breakfast, retreat, trip, work day, financial report, etc. It is the stuff of church life. Often ministries will advertise their programs as just another thing on the calendar. Other ministries will have […]

What do you do when you find yourself in desperate situations where you know what you are trying isn’t working. I liken it to a battlefield where you are seeing your core, key men and […]

We had just hired a new pastor who was to focus on leading our church in the areas of worship and arts. He’d been in our church a little over a month. Had great ideas. […]

January always brings an interesting challenge for XP’s. As we return to the office from the holidays, we begin to realize anew that the gang needs us to lead them, once again. Circulating through the […]

One of the unspoken responsibilities for Executive Pastors is creating environments where leaders in the church are developed and new leaders are attracted to join the team. Most churches that are audited come up short […]

Earlier this year, I experienced an incredible breakthrough in my working relationship with my Senior Pastor … honesty! I have the highest respect for my pastor and basically joined the leadership team because of my […]

I’d like to teach you something that I learned as a kid growing up on a horse ranch. I call it the Manure Leadership Principle. I’m surprised how many Executive Pastors are familiar with manure since […]

George Barna contends that respect, understanding and appreciation for pastors have fallen to their lowest level over the last decades. Moreover, the author claims that a church member’s trust in their pastor—to understand and address […]

As church leaders, we are tasked with challenging our members to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and go further in their ministry. Most of us learned early in our ministry that the best […]