Leadership

Do you arrive at work hoping to tackle your to-do list, only to slog to your car feeling defeated? Do you look back on your days and feel disappointed at how much time you wasted---or [...]

Think about your church for a minute. How are decisions made? Not the little ones, like who’s going to watch the two-year-olds next weekend, but the big ones: should we start that new ministry, how [...]

Death is not a topic we enjoy. Death of churches is not a topic I enjoy. You see, I love the local church. I love it, despite its flaws, sins and hypocrisies. Jesus loves me [...]

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 [...]

Throughout my many years of ministry, I have had the opportunity to coach executives of Fortune 500 companies and church leaders. My vantage point is fascinating; I enjoy the challenge of identifying best practices that [...]

Pastor, can you pinpoint the hidden sources of conflict in your congregation? If not, how will you manage them? Thankfully, you’re not left to your own devices on this one! The Bible lays it out pretty clearly. I [...]

Are you a ministry leader looking for practical insight and direction on the topic of succession planning? If so, I would like to make you aware of a new resource offered by Succession Framework℠. They [...]

Meetings. And lots of them! You know what I’m talking about. Meetings are a reality of life and leadership. We’ve all been in meetings that were engaging, stimulating, and productive. And we’ve all been in [...]

This month my vision for serving and supporting leaders took a huge step! For several years, I have been working toward launching an annual event for business, government, non-profit, and ministry leaders. Like most endeavors, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The majority of meetings are lame. They suck the time, energy, and productivity right out of you and your team. Plus, too many ministries have way too many meetings to begin with. Realistically, we are [...]

Recently, Matt Branaugh of Christianity Today interviewed David Fletcher, asking a variety of questions for Executive Pastors, including his thoughts on compensation increases, health care coverage, giving trends, staff ratios, and the importance of having [...]

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 so [...]

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 only good thing I can say about hurricanes is, unlike many other of nature’s forces, they give you some time to prepare. Preparation, however, means different things to different people---some stay, some evacuate, some shutter [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

David Fletcher wrote this when he was an Executive Pastor at Grace Covenant Church of Austin, Texas. By writing down your church's "Spiritual DNA," you are putting in print what may only be oral tradition. [...]

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 [...]

Church administration is an organizational approach that translates the purposes of God revealed to church leadership into effective ministry that reaches the unique goals and purposes of the church. Administration is ministry, not methods; people, [...]

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, [...]

I caught a flight out of Denver, still celebrating the ministry impact that was clearly evident at the church I had just visited. As I traveled, I began to compare and contrast it with other [...]

If you ask most Executive Pastors to show you their radars, they'd look a lot like FAA snapshots charting planes in flight across the country. While I know you're as stressed as a control tower [...]

I'm sure you've had unexpected changes that came into your life over the years, some which were good, while others were not so good. As you face these changes, some of which may have felt [...]

I have had the opportunity to visit many churches over the last several months, both in the DC metropolitan area and in different parts of the country. Many of these churches are filled with good [...]

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.” [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]