People sometimes quit praying for the same reason they quit a diet. It is really difficult and it seems to take too long. No one starts a diet and wakes up two days later able to wear their skinny clothes. The same is true oftentimes with prayer. Sometimes there is an immediate answer, but most [...]
Workaholics have damaged and destroyed more families than alcoholics, especially among leaders in the local church. I meet pastors all the time who work incessantly at building God’s house while ignoring their own. All the while they justify their long hours with phrases like “this is just a season and will not always be like [...]
I have a list of stuff that I am praying for on a regular basis. Some of these are personal and some affect all of us. I am making these things public because I think there is tremendous strength when believers pray in unity.
I am praying for my kiddos to be filled with the Holy [...]
Every great team has three types of leaders. This is true for churches or companies of any size. If any of the three types are missing, there will be stagnation, chaos and ultimately, failure. If a team has the right balance of the three, there will be growth and productivity.
Visionaries are people who see the [...]
In the past ten years, I have never had one bad experience at a Discount Tire. That’s either an unbelievable run of personal good fortune or Discount Tire is really good at treating people well.
Yesterday, Pam hit a curb in my car and blew out the right rear tire. After changing the tire, I took [...]
A good meeting sounds like an oxymoron. Meetings are normally not the highlight of the day at the office or at the church. People dread them like a root canal and for good reason. Usually, a lot is said, nothing is decided and very little is done after the meeting is over. Either the meetings [...]
What qualifies someone to be a leader in the church? Can someone just announce to the rest of us that “God called me” or “God spoke to me”? How can we evaluate maturity and health in a person who wants to influence others in the local fellowship? What about a Bible school degree? Isn’t that [...]
I signed a contract today with Zondervan to write two books and thus, my literary journey has officially begun. Today was the culmination of a lot of prayer and waiting. Almost three years ago, people began to encourage me to write, mostly because I was the pastor of a large church and it seemed like [...]
For the past year, most of our conversations at New Life have centered on meeting the needs of our city and helping mobilize our church to become more missional. We believe our church has to become more focused on the world that exists outside our church walls and not continue our fixation on attendance at [...]
Over time, most local churches begin to take on the personality and reflect the values of their Senior Pastor. It makes sense that this would happen since the Senior Pastor generally influences the congregation more than other leaders in the fellowship. It is a fact that most people attend a church because there is some [...]
