Spiritual Warfare and the Lives of Pastors and Church Leaders

Spiritual Warfare and the Lives of Pastors and Church Leaders

The struggle is real. When you drop the phrase spiritual warfare into a casual conversations, you often get mixed reactions. On the one hand, a lot of people are skeptics when it comes to anything invisible or supernatural. In fact, many people will believe in heaven...
3 Components of a Healthy Church Planting Model

3 Components of a Healthy Church Planting Model

We’re so “ether-or” in our viewpoints, aren’t we? We have a tendency to form an opinion, stake a position, and defend it against anything that looks different. Tension can be good. Out of tension flows a creative discussion and differences of...
Boring Preaching Is A Crime! 7 Ways to Be Interesting

Boring Preaching Is A Crime! 7 Ways to Be Interesting

No, this is not a post about the loss of our religious freedom – it’s a reflection on a quote I’ve looked at many times since I first wrote it down about nine years ago at a conference on preaching… If you think the gathering of biblical facts...
5 Arenas of Pastoral Leadership

5 Arenas of Pastoral Leadership

For about a decade and a half of my life as a pastor, I spent a lot of time focusing on being a better church leader. I read books and articles about vision, about church growth methodologies, and about leadership in hopes that I could perform my way into success the...
Great Leadership is Always About Serving Other People

Great Leadership is Always About Serving Other People

The best book I’ve ever read on leadership is – and I’m not merely trying to sound spiritual – the Bible. Jesus was the greatest leader of all time, of course, but there are also many other examples of great leadership in Scripture. Joseph was...
The Best Leaders Are Broken Leaders

The Best Leaders Are Broken Leaders

I am broken. I lead a community of broken people called a church. And we often say, unapologetically, that we are a community of the broken who have good news for the broken. Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean that we’re “broken” in the...
How to Make Next Year Your Best Year Ever

How to Make Next Year Your Best Year Ever

Think back with me to January One of this year. What were your resolutions? And if you don’t “do” resolutions, what were your intentions? What were your goals and dreams? And how have you done with them? There is a spiritual truth I learned long ago...
7 Spiritual Challenges for Imperfect Leaders

7 Spiritual Challenges for Imperfect Leaders

Recently, I had a phone call with a young leader convinced he was no longer qualified to lead because he’d messed up in a way that pretty much every man on the planet has messed up repeatedly. This morning, I received an email from a Pastor wanting to know if he...
5 Marks of a Mature Leader

5 Marks of a Mature Leader

Your body’s physical maturity typically peaks in early adulthood, but your spiritual maturity will keep growing even into eternity. If you serve in any leadership capacity for very long, you’re going to have to grow in maturity over time to be able to...
The Right Decision is Better Than a Quick Decision

The Right Decision is Better Than a Quick Decision

If you aspire to lead an organization with greater confidence, you’ve no doubt felt the pressure to be the bold decision maker – the one out front ready to charge into the fray. The problem is, sometimes we charge ahead, ignoring the pitfalls, traps, and...