elementals: quick reads to sharpen your leadership edge.

2 min

Servanthood = Outward Focus

In our work with Elemental Churches, we identify the 4 critical traits all healthy churches have: Integrity, Passion, Servanthood, and Im...

2 min

Politics & Pulpits: 6 Questions to Ask

In highly politically-polarized times, church leaders walk a tricky tightrope. Even the most self-aware leaders who don’t want to promote...

2 min

Popsicles & the Church

Back when I was pastoring, I held on to a letter for years that would remind me what was really important for me and my church. A woman h...

2 min

Imagining the New Year With Questions

“Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and imagine almost nothing.” ~Walter Brueggemann. The promise of a new year after...

4 min

The Top 4 Predictions for 2021!

The closing of a year typically engenders a reflective look back and some prognostication for the next one. I would prefer to not look ba...

3 min

The Problem With Shepherds

Think about this: the most important event in human history happens and who learns about it first? Shepherds. Of course. The guys on the ...

2 min

Flatlining on the Status Quo

At one point in my pastoring, we purchased a demographic study based on a ten-mile radius of our church. It was filled with extremely hel...

3 min

And Now For Something Different: Spiritual Conflict

Though I’ve never really spoken about it publicly, the church I pastored had a number of run-ins with disturbed people. When you open you...

2 min

Imagination & Change: 3 Big Leadership Questions

According to some neuropsychologists, part of the way our brain functions in order to not burn out is by creating neural pathways so as n...

2 min

Covid Contrarians

So how does the Church survive in the time of Covid? One day during a Q&A session with Jesus, this query was raised: “If I am to love my ...

2 min

Is It Time For The Searchlight?

Last week I wrote about vulnerability…you can read it here. But I want to hammer on this a little more. And here’s why. I have seen too m...

3 min

Vulnerability & Leadership

The organizational behavior philosopher Charles Handy made reference to an exercise known as the Johari Window. The Johari exercise offer...

2 min

Community in a Time of Covid

About 35 years ago, the Journal of Community Psychology featured a landmark article by David McMillan and David Chavis outlining four fou...

3 min

We Have the Meats!

Leaders and pastors, have you ever heard this?: “When are we going to get the deep teaching here? When am I going to get some meat?” An...

2 min

Circumstances and Leadership

This whacked-out 2020 year is a case study in how circumstances can upend organizations and their leaders: how they function, how they fu...

2 min

Leaders Get Ripped Off. So?

In doing ministry that is geared toward serving, generosity, and giving away resources, some churches get concerned that they might get r...

2 min

The (Not-So) Secret Weapon of the Church

For some unknown reason, I recently stumbled across a 60-year old interview with Ayn Rand by Mike Wallace. As you probably know, Rand’s p...

3 min

VBS and C.S. Lewis

One summer when I was a little boy, my mom sent me to something called “Vacation Bible School.” If ever there was an oxymoron, that’s it....

2 min

Moving Connection from Virtual to Reality

Please welcome our friend and guest blogger Boyd Pelley! Boyd co-founded Churchteams, a leader in church management software. In this blo...

2 min

E = mc2 ...spiritually speaking

At one point at the church where I pastored, we were doing seven identical services every weekend. In a room that seated 570 people, we h...

2 min

The Fear of Outside Help

Over the years I’ve found myself ruminating on why pastors are often reluctant to engage with outside organizational assessors, consultan...

2 min

The Outward-Focused Problem

I recently spoke at a friend’s church and mentioned that I believe Jesus teaches that we become more whole, more joyous, more fulfilled, ...

2 min

Who Likes a Test?

As a child, I hated tests in school. The clammy feeling in your hands, the sound of the clock ticking, wondering if everyone else is ahea...

2 min

How Are You Communicating?

Many years ago I came across an old multi-volume set of John Wesley’s journals. I found his accounts fascinating. Meticulous, inspiring, ...

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