I knew that this pastor frequented a local diner every morning, so I decided at least once a week that it would become my first stop each day. Over time, we formed a friendship, he began to trust me, and, most importantly, he began to share his broken heart with me. He became one of my dearest friends.

My pastor friend passed away about six months into our relationship. I still think of him and his absence with a heavy heart. I miss him. I will never forget the last months of our friendship and how he consistently told me that God had sent me to him. He was so appreciative of our time together.
[...] Continue Reading…

Over the last few years, through Twitter and personal blogs, I have gained so much by networking online with other church and ministry leaders.  Periodically I like to share the ones most currently influencing me with their online presence in case you have missed any of them.  Since they are well known, chances are you have them on your list already.  If so, this is simply a tribute.  If not, I encourage you to follow their work.  (Obviously some are not individuals, but an organization/ministry.)

There are others who are making a difference, even in my leadership.  I chose these people/groups because not only are they making a difference and giving good content to the church leadership world, but they have made themselves accessible to people also. [...] Continue Reading…

One of the responsibilities of a leader is to be consistently looking forward for the organization. A leader has to continually be asking the question: What’s next? That’s a critical key to continued growth of the organization.

The problem for me in completing this task comes with the immediate demands on my time. The now cliché statement goes “Sunday’s coming” is always true for a pastor. There are always immediate needs of people in the church. It seems there is something that continually occupies my immediate attention. Still, if our church is to continue to grow and face the challenges of a changing community, I must discipline myself to pick my head up from the daily routines to think long-term for our church.

With that discipline in mind, here are 8 ways I keep myself looking forward: [...] Continue Reading…

Recently I wrote a post called 10 Reasons Not to Call Yourself and Empowering Leader. I have enjoyed partnership and friendship with the Catalyst Leader team. Jesse Phillips is a tremendous young leader and handles the web content for Catalyst. He consistently encourages me to help leaders know “how to” implement the principles I write about on this blog. At his request, I took the empowering leaders post and added to it. You can read some of that post at the Catalyst site.
[...] Continue Reading…

Michael Hyatt is one of the best leaders I know. I have had the privilege of getting to know Michael personally over the last couple of years, having met him first through Twitter. What I have come to understand is that Michael is the same online as he is in person. Michael is the C.E.O. of a successful organization (Thomas Nelson is the largest Christian publisher), he is extremely accessible and transparent through his online involvement, and he is a model husband and father. When I think of a well-balanced leader, I think of Michael Hyatt. [...] Continue Reading…

We are in a new series at Grace Community Church called Outsiders, looking at some characters in the Bible who aren’t as well known as other characters, yet who made huge impacts to the Kingdom. Yesterday I spoke about the disciple Thomas. Though some know him as Doubting Thomas, I prefer the title I have also heard by which I’ve also heard him referred, Thomas the Believer. In this message, I address the bottom line that doubts are not the major problem for a believer, unbelief is. Ultimately we must go from doubts to a solid foundation of faith; that God is who He says He is and will do what is best in our life. [...] Continue Reading…

Recently the staff at Grace Community Church talked through conflict and its benefit for us. Sometimes an organization can become too polite with each other and conflict is avoided or ignored in an effort to protect the relationship or to avoid the tension conflict creates. Other times one person tends to control a situation without allowing other people’s input, either for selfish reasons or to keep conflict from developing. The problem with these approaches is that some of the best ideas are never implemented because we don’t push through the messiness of conflict to get to the right answers. [...] Continue Reading…

Our children have become media junkies. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a study of children ages 8 to 18, which found, not surprisingly, that they are consuming a astounding amount of media entertainment each day. Children now consume an average of 7 ½ hours per day or 52 ½ hours per week of media saturation.

Daily media consumption of U.S. children: [...] Continue Reading…

Scripture is clear, however, that the role of a believer is to consider the interest of others, even before we consider our own. Paul writes, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3…emphasis mine) [...] Continue Reading…

What an amazing video for a corporation to make! One critical element of success in today’s market is honest and transparency. They are even asking for competition! This video from Honda is worth watching. [...] Continue Reading…