Leadership
Leaders in your church can take on different shapes. They can be elders, deacons, parking attendants or Sunday School teachers. How can you encourage these leaders and make sure that they are taking care of themselves—spiritually, emotionally and physically? Are they participating regularly in worship? Are they living a balanced life?
Mastering the Art of Consistency: Raising Your Habits to Reflect Your Calling
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 [...]
How Ego and Blind Spots Hold Churches Back from Fulfilling Their Highest Potential
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 [...]
Ministry Myth Busters—4 Leadership Myths that Hold Your Team Back
Great leaders know that a critical part of their job is clearing the way for their team to be successful. We want to tear down the roadblocks in their way and propel [...]
Clear Priorities Drive Good Decisions
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 [...]
Be the Unicorn
William will unpack his latest book, Be the Unicorn. The book addresses the questions of, How do I stand out? and How do I become irreplaceable? William bases the answers on his [...]
Be the Unicorn
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 [...]
3 Tips for Leading Better Meetings
Do you feel like your time is wasted in meetings? If so, you’re not alone. “A shocking 71% of professionals report having their time wasted, due to unnecessary or canceled meetings.” In [...]
What the Latest Gallup Trends Mean for Your Church & Leadership
Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace is out, and we're here to break down everything you need to know as a leader. The main summary statement Gallup wants leaders to take [...]
2 Trends Impacting Your Leadership This Year
Over the past 3 years the expectations for leaders has only grown more acute. Staff transitions, waning morale, and rising mental health challenges are resulting in new research that suggests that 43% [...]
Learning from Leadership Failures
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 [...]
Leading the Flock: 5 Tips for Executive Pastors to Become Effective Leaders
Effective leadership boils down to the healthy habits you implement on a consistent basis. But what are those habits? And how do you practically implement them when your calendar is already packed? [...]
Why Implement a Written Integrity Plan?
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% [...]
9 Resources on Financial Integrity
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 [...]
Guardrails to Strengthen Pastoral Integrity
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, [...]
Cultivating Hospitality in a Divided Church
Politics. Masks. Vaccines. The reasons churches are dividing are legion. How should we as church leaders cultivate spaces where people who have nothing else in common gather and are willing to put [...]
The Art of Leading Change
Leading change is difficult. The hardest part is not deciding which path to follow. The bigger challenge is found in the messy human dynamics throughout the journey of change. Many resources for [...]
4 Reasons You Don’t Delegate
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 [...]
Prepping New Leaders
Hey Fletch … A woman wanted to start an outreach ministry activity. She has good character and a right heart for the target audience. Now she’s drowning under the weight of being at the [...]
Four Ways You Can Be a Godly Leader in a Sports-Crazed World
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 [...]
Culture is Currency
Your culture drives everything—how you attract great leaders, retain them and how you develop them. It even drives succession. Let’s talk about how the most important investment you can make is in your [...]
Opinionated Division, Steen Interviews Fletch
Matt Steen, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, and David Fletcher, have a poignant talk about the unspoken stress that is causing Churches to make fast and bad, far-reaching decisions. In this Chemistry Conversation, [...]
Leading in Uncertain Times, Part 2
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, [...]
Leading in Uncertain Times, Part 1
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 [...]
Leadership Principles from the Tech World
Molly Matthews is the CEO of Pushpay, a leading provider of donor management solutions that simplify and encourage engagement, payments, and administration, enabling customers to increase participation and build stronger relationships in [...]